Vals roll past Plains and Troy

The Valkyries (6-2, 5-0) varsity girls basketball team has still yet to find an opponent in District 7B that can come close to topping them, and last week was no exception as they beat Troy on the road 57-12 and Plains in a home game 62-25.

"I think we're learning to communicate better and that's a big thing," said Mark Hansen, Bigfork High School head girls basketball coach. "We've also spent a lot of time focusing on our man-to-man defense and that seems to be paying off. Plus, we're not fouling like we were, and that helps keep the score down."

On Saturday, Bigfork jumped out to a 17-7 lead over Troy by the end of the first quarter.

"We worked a lot on our man defense and the girls executed it really well out there," Hansen said. "We took some real pride in that."

The Vals really put the pressure on for the remainder of the game and held the Trojans to two points each in the second and third quarters and one point in the fourth. Meanwhile, the Vals racked up 11 points in the second, 23 in the third and six points in the final period. A running clock was used starting in the final minutes of the third quarter due to the mercy rule, which is initiated after a team is ahead by 40 points.

Quinci Paine had a game-high 15 points and eight rebounds. Caitlin Charlebois contributed 13 points, including two 3-pointers, and she had 11 steals. Taylor Peck added 11 points, including three 3-pointers, and she had four assists.

"We shot better than we have," Hansen said. "Not great though. We're still not finding the basket before we shoot sometimes."

On Thursday, the Vals started off strong in their home game against Plains. Led by Charlebois and Mallery Knoll, who scored seven points and six points respectively, the Vals got the game started with an 18-5 lead at the end of the first period.

"I really liked their intensity," Hansen said of his Vals. "We came out and played really hard."

Seven of the Bigfork Vals scored in the second quarter to combine for 20 points while holding Plains to half that many.

Bigfork scored 12 points in each of the final two periods. The Trotters scored six in the third quarter and four in the fourth, which was barely enough to keep the game from having a running clock.

Charlebois, who shot 3-for-4 from the free-throw line, had a game high 18 points and six assists. Knoll, who was also 3-for-4 from the foul line contributed 13 points, five steals and four assists. Peck contributed nine points and Lila Cenis had eight points, all of which she put in during the first half. McKinze Shults led the Vals in rebounds with nine boards and Paine and Melissa VanDerveer grabbed seven apiece.

"The contributions by Melissa and McKinze were big things for us," Hansen said. "Their work out there getting the rebounds was a big key for us doing as well as we did."

Heather Earhart was responsible for 13 of the Trotters' 25 game points.

The Bigfork girls hosted Ronan on Tuesday, Jan. 12, and those results are available on the Eagle's Web site, www.bigforkeagle.com, and in next week's paper.

Today, Jan. 14, the Vals travel to Whitefish. The matches against Ronan and Whitefish, which are Class A schools, are non-conference games for the Vals.