Vals move to 4-2 in conference

The Bigfork varsity Vals hosted Polson and Columbia Falls last week, and beat the Lady Pirates 38-25 on Tuesday but lost to the Wildkats Friday night 49-43 to put their record at 4-2 in conference and 8-4 overall.

The Vals had a one point lead at the end of the first quarter against the Wildkats after putting up 11 points, seven of which Roxy Thurman scored with two field goals and a 3-pointer. However, Bigfork let that lead slip away when they scored just five points in the second quarter and allowed Columbia Falls to put up 11 points. The Vals fought back in the third, outscoring the Wildkats 17 to six and recaptured the lead with the help of Mallery Knoll and Thurman who scored seven and five, respectively.

“We dug ourselves a hole and got back up and took the lead, but then we let them score 20,” said Bigfork High School girls basketball head coach Mark Hansen. “We got a run for a while, but it wasn’t enough. The third quarter is the kind of quarter we’re trying to play all the time, but we’re just not doing it.”

Both teams spent a lot of time at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. Bigfork sunk eight of their 12 shots and put up just one field goal in the final period. Meanwhile Columbia Falls was given 19 opportunities from the line in the fourth and made 13 of the bonus shots, and also put in seven from the field to take the win.

“We were able to create some turnovers in the third quarter and get some breakaways,” Hansen said. “In the fourth we didn’t take very good care of the ball. We had five of our 14 turnovers in the fourth when we should’ve been learning from our mistakes, not repeating them.”

Thurman outscored all other players with 19 points and was six-of-eight from the free-throw line. She grabbed seven rebounds, five steals and made three assists. Knoll had a total of nine points and sunk all three of her free throws. Kailey Fierro was Bigfork’s leading rebounder with eight, and she contributed seven points.

“Signa McLoud came in and gave us some nice stuff for coming off the bench” Hansen said. “She got some boards and really held down the fort for us.”

In Tuesday’s game against Polson, Knoll got the Vals going with a pair of field goals at the start of the first quarter.

Thurman followed with a pair of her own, while defensively the Vals kept Polson off the score board until the last three-and-a-half minutes of the first quarter when Polson put up their only two points of the period.

In the second quarter the Lady Pirates turned their six point deficit into a 17-16 lead by the end of the first half. The third quarter was a repeat of the first, with Bigfork putting up nine points, five of which Knoll scored with a 3-pointer and a field goal, and Polson again scored just two points.

Fourth quarter scoring for both teams revolved around the free-throw line since Polson scored just two points from the field and Bigfork scored only four. The final minutes of the game were spent taking turns shooting free-throws and then fouling again. In all, Polson fouled eight times in the fourth quarter, giving Bigfork 15 shots from the line, nine of which they made. Bigfork fouled six times, giving Polson 12 attempts to score from the line, but they only made four.

Nearly one-third of all the points scored by each team during the game came from the free-throw line. Bigfork was successful 62 percent of the time having made 14 of their 21 shots from the line. Polson made just seven of their 17, a 41 percent success rate.

Thurman was the high scorer of the game, putting up 14 points. She also had seven rebounds, four steals and four blocks. Knoll scored nine points and made four steals. Fierro was the Vals leading rebounder with 14 boards, and she also had five assists and three blocks. Peck had four steals and contributed five points, after making five of her six free-throw shots in the second half. Caitlin Charlebois  was three-of-four from the line, and had a total of five points.

“I thought we played good defense,” Hansen said. “The girls did a a nice job of taking care of the ball and that’s something that we have been needing to work on. Offensively we struggled with putting the ball in the hole. We need to work on our zone offense. We didn’t execute as well as we should have.”

The Vals host Plains on Thursday and Mission on Saturday.