Missoula's towering talent dominates Bigfork

The Bigfork girls varsity basketball team hosted their first home game last Tuesday, and were visited by a big guest — last year’s Class AA state champions Big Sky High School — who beat the Vals 70-42.

The Big Sky Eagles are a big school, but they also brought along some big talent in senior Joslyn Tinkle, who recently signed to play basketball at Stanford University next year.

“You can’t guard Joslyn one-on-one,” said head BHS girls basketball coach Mark Hansen. “I would’ve liked to see us box out more and keep her away from the basket. She’s so tall that once she’s in there there isn’t any stopping her.”

The six-foot-three star scored 31 points for the Eagles, though she only played in the first two-and-a-half quarters.

“I was super excited to play against Joslyn,” said sophomore Mallery Knoll. “It was awesome to play her. One day, if she’s playing in the WNBA, we’ll be able to say we played Joslyn Tinkle. It was exciting, but I was nervous too.”

Knoll managed to calm her nerves enough to score on the phenom, though she stands only five-feet-five. In fact, Knoll ended up being the Vals leading scorer with 17 points. Senior Roxy Thurman added in 14 points, including a three-point shot and made seven of her eight shots from the free-throw line. Freshman Taylor Peck went three for four from the free-throw line.

Overall the Vals took advantage of the opportunities given to them by the Eagles, but they were no match for the size of the Big Sky players.

“We did a good job of getting up and down the court quickly,” Thurman said. “Our defense at times was really good. We penetrated and got to the free throw line a lot. Our goal was to push the ball, and we did that pretty well. You can’t really get into a set offense with them because they are a lot bigger than us. We just had to beat them down the court.”

The Vals did their best to hold Big Sky off though. Halfway through the first quarter the score was Eagles four, Vals three. By the end of the first quarter the deficit had grown to 18-9. Scoring went similarly in the second quarter with Big Sky scoring 19 and Bigfork putting up eight, to end the half with a score of 37-17.

“We got down and it was hard for us to get back up,” Hansen said.

Things got worse for Bigfork in the third quarter when the Eagles outscored them 22 to 11.

“All of the girls did a great job,” Hansen said. “They were pretty excited about playing them. We didn’t execute as well as I would’ve liked. Between quarters and during time-outs I talked with them about doing a better job with boxing out and running their plays. I thought we played some good defense though.”

There was some good news for Bigfork in the third quarter. By mid-way through the third, the Eagles held nearly a 30 point advantage, which meant it was time for Tinkle to take the bench.

“When Joslyn wasn’t in there I thought the girls played very competitively,” Hansen said.

The Vals took advantage, and spent the remainder of the third and the fourth quarter trying to play catch-up. Though they did outscore Big Sky 14 to 11, it wasn’t enough to even things up.

“I think they wished they had played a little bit better,” Hansen said. “I think they were in awe a little bit about playing the AA champions and Joslyn, but I think they did well.”

The players seemed to agree with their coach.

“I think we did better than most people expected us to do,” Knoll said. “So that’s good. But I think we also could’ve done better, but I guess that’s always how it is.”

Thurman, one of the four seniors on the Bigfork team, said she was pleased with how things went considering the circumstances.

“We actually played really well,” Thurman said. “It would’ve been nice if we matched up better height-wise.”

The height issue was mostly concentrated around Tinkle, but Big Sky also brought three players who were six-feet tall. By comparison, the tallest girl that started for Bigfork’s varsity team that night was Thurman, who measures five-foot-nine. Other than Thurman, the Vals had two five-foot-eight girls and everyone else who started was under, or at, five-and-a-half feet tall.

“Joslyn is hard to defend because she’s so tall,” Thurman said. “I think we did the best we could defending her. We let her get the ball a couple of times too easily, but I think we gave her a little bit of a run.”    While signing autographs for a few of the Vals after the game, Tinkle admitted that the Vals did just that. She told Thurman that the Vals “worked them.” While she disagreed with Tinkle at the time, Thurman said that she hoped there was some truth in the complement.

“I hope they didn’t leave thinking it was really easy,” Thurman said.