Arlee tops Charlo, but falls to Mission

ARLEE — The Warriors beat Charlo and Hot Springs, but Mission and Noxon proved to be tough competition.

Against Charlo, the team came up big, winning 52-49 in Charlo to avenge an earlier loss at home.

"We had to get back to attacking the basket. We got our perimeter shot going from the outside, and we drove the ball inside and then kicked it back out for the shot," said head coach Cole Maxwell.

Sean Mesteth hit a 3-pointer to put the team up by four late in the game, and they held off the Vikings to get the win.

"For our confidence, this was a big game," Maxwell said.

Mesteth came through, leading the team with 16 points, followed by Matt Baker with 11, Iain Hogan with 10, Billy Hitchcock with seven, Blake Koemans with six and Buddy Hietala with two.

"Sean has the ability to do that night after night," Maxwell said of the breakout game by Mesteth.

At Hot Springs, the Warriors started out with a close 20-20 in the first quarter. They took the lead in the second round 35-33. The Warriors picked it up and scored 24 more points to Hot Springs' 14 point gain in the third quarter and the Warriors took home the win, 87-80, ranking them third in the district.

"Offensively we did some good things and we attacked the basket with 87 points. When you're scoring inside you're going inside. Our defense wasn't stellar but we got the job done," Maxwell said.

Billy Hitchcock led the game with 28 points, Matt Baker scored 19 points, Blake Koemans scored 18 points, Iain Hogan scored 13 and Gus Azure scored two points.

The Warriors lost to Mission at Thursday's game with an ending score 81-52.

"We ran into a buzz saw in the first quarter and they were better prepared. We were down big after the first quarter and we never recovered. I don't know if it was the pressure or a mental choice the boys made but we became very passive — not the way we want to play. We were not ready, not to take anything away from Gus (McDonald) or Tyler (Trudeau) or Coach Woll but we weren't prepared, and it wasn't a pretty game," Maxwell said.

In the first quarter Blake Koemans made a three-point shot and Billy Hitchcock dropped in two points. Matt Baker took his turn with the ball and scored two points bringing the score 7-7 in the first few minutes of the game.

Iain Hogan made a two-point basket before the Bulldogs took off and the Warriors lost their edge on the ball.

Matt Baker scored two shots in the second round and the Warriors worked together to bring the ball down the court giving Baker another turn at the net to bring the score 18-41.

The Warriors had a hard time matching the intensity of the game and they only brought up ten points in the second quarter. They worked the ball a few times but kept loosing passes and taking missed shots.

In the third quarter Baker made a three-point shot and he brought it up again with two more two-point shots. The Warriors took a few three-point attempts and executed some worthy plays but the ball just bounced back off the rim.

On Saturday the Warriors played Noxon for a much closer game 51-60 loss.

"We were looking to bounce back at Noxon. We knew their team was aggressive and could shoot the ball well. In the first quarter we shot eight points to their (22). We didn't come out offensively. They were getting two and three shots to our one and that makes it tough. After the first quarter we got back into the game and on occasion we became aggressive but then it was back to passive. That's what we talked about in the locker room — getting back to playing Warrior basketball," Maxwell said.

In the second quarter the Warriors were down by six points 23-29 and the Red Devils kept on going in the third quarter 43-36. The game ended with a lose for the Warriors 60-5.

Iain Hogan lead the game with 20 points, Matt Baker made ten points, Hietala and Mesteth each scored six points, Koemans scored five points and Hitchcock scored four points.

"We have three games left to get ourselves into form for districts. We have to be on our game both offensively and defensively," Maxwell said.

The Warriors go to Plains on Friday.