Vals take down Class A rivals

The Valkyries played against some old Northwest A foes last week — Whitefish and Ronan — neither of which probably misses having Bigfork in their conference too much, considering the Vals handed the Lady Bulldogs a 68-43 loss and the Maidens received a 52-16 domination by the District 7B Champions.

"The girls are just running the floor and sharing the ball really well," said Mark Hansen, Bigfork High School girls basketball coach. "They're doing a nice job offensively."

The Vals used their final two games before the District 7B Tournament this weekend in Libby to spread around playing time and scoring.

Mallery Knoll had the game-high in both matchups, putting in 19 against Whitefish and 10 in Bigfork's game in Ronan. Quinci Paine had a big week as well. She scored 10 against the Lady Bulldogs and eight against the Maidens. Paine was also the leading rebounder for Bigfork when the Vals hosted Whitefish with 11 boards.

Knoll and Paine were the scoring leaders, but both wins were a team effort for the Vals. Nine Bigfork girls scored in each game, and the team's rebounding numbers were strong against Whitefish and Ronan as well.

"We had 24 rebounds in Ronan and 25 versus Whitefish," Hansen said. "If we can continue to do that, we should be pretty tough to beat at districts."

Hansen said he believes that they broke the record for most assists in a game for a Bigfork High School girls team with 23 in their game Thursday against the Lady Bulldogs.

The Whitefish game was the tougher of the Vals' two matchups last week.

Six Valkyries scored in the first quarter of their game against Whitefish, and four Bigfork players put in multiple baskets, to help the team reach 21 points by the end of the first quarter. Defensively, Bigfork held Whitefish to just six points.

The second quarter was tight, with the Vals scoring 15 and the Lady Bulldogs totaling 14.

"Once we quit pressing, we gave up some baskets," Hansen said. "Whitefish shot well. You have to give them some credit. They kept competing, and when they got an opening, they knocked a shot down."

Bigfork fought back in the third quarter with Knoll, Caitlin Charlebois and Kailey Fierro all putting in five points to get the Vals toward the 20 points they scored that quarter. The Lady Bulldogs had 12 third-quarter points. Bigfork maintained its lead in the fourth quarter by outscoring Whitefish 12-11 in the final period for the win, which made the Vals undefeated on their home court this season.

Fierro was Bigfork's second highest scorer with 11 points.

"Kailey is doing a nice job of getting the ball and scoring on the inside for us," Hansen said. "It's nice to have her and Lila Cenis doing so well for us. I'm able to interchange the two of them and have it work really well. I can also play both of them at the same time and we have our own version of the Twin Towers down there and that works great for us too. We have that with Quinci and McKinze (Shults' also. Those two are playing at the top of their game right now."

Charlebois contributed 10 points and made seven steals. In addition to her 19 points, Knoll also had six assists and five steals. Melissa VanDerveer helped out with five assists.

The Vals narrowly missed breaking another school record -— most points in a girls game, which sits at 70. Had they done better from the free-throw line, they would have broken it with ease. The Vals were just 7-for-14 from the line. None of the girls made all of their foul shots, though Knoll and VanDerveer were both 2-for-3.

In Ronan the Vals held a 24-9 lead at the half and kept steadily pushing through the final two quarters, outscoring the Maidens 16-5 and 12-2.

Paine led the Vals first-quarter charge, scoring six of her eight points in the opening quarter.

"She brought a lot of energy and got us going right off the bat," Hansen said.

Cenis was the Vals' leading rebounder with six boards. Peck led in assists with five. Charlebois was the steals leader with four and she made three assists.

"We had a lot of girls get some playing time and we shared the ball really well," Hansen said. "Defensively, we did some better things than we did against Whitefish."

Hansen said he had counted on it being a much closer game.

"Ronan had just come off of a hard loss with Columbia Falls where they were pretty competitive with the best team in their league," Hansen said. "I think we broke their will in the first half and they didn't come out with a lot of energy in the second half. I was pretty surprised I expected a better game."

The substantial lead allowed Hansen to give his bench some playing time, which the players took full advantage of.

Shults scored five points, grabbed seven rebounds and made six steals.

"I thought McKinze had a huge game," Hansen said. "She and Melissa have been doing a good job off of the bench, and so has Kailey. I have three girls that I can take off of the bench and throw out there that are at the same level as the others."

Against the Maidens, Fierro scored six points and VanDerveer scored four.

The victory over Ronan was the 100th win for Hansen as a varsity boys and girls basketball coach. (See page A7).

The Vals will start off the District 7B Tournament with a 1 p.m. game Friday against the winner of Thursday's game between St. Ignatius and Plains.

The winner of that game advances to the championship game at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

"They both bring their challenges," Hansen said of their first two potential opponents at the tournament. "We just have to worry about ourselves and make sure we're playing the best basketball we can. Most of the girls have at least some tournament experience, and some have a lot. So, hopefully that will help us at districts."