Lady Pirates' win streak ends

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

The Lady Pirates wining streak ended with a loss to AA Big Sky Tuesday, 45-25, but the team picked up wins against Columbia Falls and Stevensville this weekend.

"We shut ourselves down. We had way too many turnovers. We had three shots and made one basket in the third quarter," said head coach Bruce Thomas.

While Tuesday wasn't the girls' night, they looked solid against the Class A competition they faced.

Kara Huyser scored the first 10 points for the team against the Wildkats Friday night, as the 'Kats struggled to contain her with their shorter defense. Gracie Sartori and Emily Fors added buckets, too, but the Kats led 17-14 after the first quarter.

Sartori opened the second with a 3-pointer, and then a steal and coast-to-coast lay-up by Jen Orchard, followed by two more shots inside the paint by Huyser, gave the team a 26-25 lead going into the half.

"They [Wildkats] played a really physical ball game. I wasn't sure how we were going to do," head coach Bruce Thomas said.

They managed to contain Huyser better in the second half, but true to form, the rest of the team picked up the slack, with Sartori getting back-to-back buckets, and Merilee Mowbray had a 3-point play to end the third, with the Lady Pirates ahead 39-35.

Sartori finished withi 13, Orchard had 11, Buckless and Mowbray had three, Fors had two and Brittany Gardner had one.

"They got really physical against Kara, so we spread them out, and made them play more out of the paint," Thomas said. "When you look at a team from a defensive point, when they have multiple scorers, you just can't protect against that, and that's what we have, multiple scorers."

Against Stevi, the girls had a much easier time, picking up an 81-39 win behind 13 points from Buckless, 12 from Huyser, 11 from Fors, nine from Gardner, eight from Orchard and Sartori, seven from Lexi Frederick, five from Jaelin Vandeberg, three from Angela Schuman and Kendra Woldstad, and two from Lindsey Rafter.

Looking ahead, the girls will travel to Mission Saturday for a non-conference game against the Bulldogs, before going to Whitefish next week. The Lady Pirates only have two home games out of seven over the next month - a much harder schedule than the first half of the season.