Vals split at Hamilton tourney
Photo courtesy of Stacey Lishok/Ravalli Republic Bigfork’s Taylor Peck, left, battles a Corvallis player for the ball on Saturday at the Hamilton Tip Off Tournament. The Vals topped Corvallis, but lost their opener to Hamilton Friday night.
The Bigfork girls basketball team started their season off last weekend with one win and one loss at the Hamilton Tip Off.
The Vals lost their Friday night game to Hamilton 63-49.
The game started out rough for Bigfork, as they scored only six points in the first quarter and allowed the Broncs to score 22.
“I think there were a lot of first game jitters,” said Bigfork head girls basketball coach Mark Hansen. “I had a few girls that had never been on a varsity floor before and I think that showed the first day. Plus Hamilton shot really well.”
Bigfork came back to outscore Hamilton in the second and third quarters, 12-9 and 19-10, respectively.
“Our half court trap was pretty successful in the second and third quarters and helped us come back,” Hansen said. “But we got into foul trouble by the fourth and had a lot of the younger girls playing.”
Hamilton took advantage of the opportunity and sunk three 3-pointers at the start of the fourth quarter. Ultimately they secured the win by scoring 22 points in the fourth quarter to Bigfork’s 12.
“We showed our weaknesses the first night,” Hansen said. “We need to work on our man-defense.”
Senior Roxy Thurman led the team in scoring with 12 points, and also had six steals and four assists. Sophomore Mallery Knoll was close behind with 11 points and six assists. Freshman Taylor Peck contributed eight points, including two 3-pointers, and made seven rebounds. Sophomore Quinci Paine led the team in rebounds with eight, and senior Signa McLeod had seven. McLeod also contributed seven points.
The Vals played much stronger Saturday beating Corvallis 54-38.
“We came out a little more composed,” Hansen said. “We took better care of the ball and we were just more comfortable on the floor.”
The Vals led 12-7 after the first quarter and continued to outscore their opponent through the remainder of the game.
The nerves had apparently settled, and the Bigfork girls were able to make 16 of their 25 free throw attempts, unlike the previous night when foul shots were a continually missed opportunity.
“I thought Signa had a good weekend,” Hansen said. “She had a lot of energy and hustle. Freshman Taylor Peck and sophomores Mallery Knoll and Quinci Paine did a great job for being some of the younger girls on the court.”
Thurman and Knoll again led the team in scoring on Saturday with 17 and 11 points, respectively. Thurman also had six assists and six rebounds and Knoll had four assists. Peck continued to make an impact in her first weekend of high school basketball competition with seven points, six assists and four steals. Paine repeated as the rebound leader with nine and also contributed eight points. Sophomore Caitlin Charlebois had six steals and six points.
“For it being our first games there are definitely some things we need to work on, but the effort was definitely there,” Hansen said. “The biggest thing was just getting the girls used to being on the court and used to their roles on the team.”
The Vals are struggling with numbers this year. They have only 21 girls to play on all three of the school’s teams. The result is that many young players will play up, and some of the older girls will be playing down to fill in where the need is.
The Vals hosted Big Sky on Tuesday and will host Libby tomorrow, Dec. 19.
“We got a really good ball team coming in Libby,” Hansen said. “They were picked ahead of us in the conference. They do a lot of things really well. We are more concerned with what we’re doing though than what they’re going to do.”