Jones shows resilience with pair of victories

RED DEER, Alta. — Four- time champion Jennifer Jones isn’t one to get rattled at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. So even after her Manitoba team lost in simply bizarre fashion to Team Canada’s Amber Holland on Monday night — a burned rock by Manitoba second Jill Officer led to a game- turning stolen deuce for Canada — Jones was hardly shaken up.

Instead, she came out Tuesday and put two impressive wins on the board to take over sole possession of second place behind Team Canada at the Canadian women’s curling championship. Jones showed, yet again, that there are few women’s teams in the world who play better when facing adversity than the Winnipeg quartet.

In the morning draw, Jones, third Kaitlyn Lawes, Officer and lead Dawn Askin drilled Heather Smith- Dacey of Nova Scotia 8- 3.

A few hours later, the 2011 silver medallists took an extra end to beat Saskatchewan’s Michelle Englot 8- 7 to cap a perfect day, and erase any lingering aftertaste from Monday night. The wins moved Manitoba to 5- 2, tied with Kelly Scott of B. C. and Team Canada for first place.

“It did feel good ( to bounce back),” said Jones, who didn’t need to throw her last rock in the 11th end when Englot was light on her tap attempt.

“It was just one loss. It was just an unfortunate loss, but we’re a team, we stick together, and I’m really proud of how the girls came out today.”

It also got Manitoba through the toughest portion of its Scotties schedule — all teams have to play four straight draws at one point during the event, and Manitoba came through it 3- 1 to set the stage for the final two- day push to the playoffs.

Scott’s rink had lost two straight before bouncing back with an 11- 7 win over Newfoundland’s Heather Strong rink in Tuesday’s late draw.