Larson leads Maidens past Mission

The Maidens, plagued by injuries early in the season, need a go-to player, and last Friday night, Kaylee Larson was it.

Larson's 22 points led Ronan over Mission, 39-27, as the Lady Bulldogs themselves are looking for that one player to step up and take control.

"I was really happy with how we moved the ball, and broke their various presses they put on us. The younger girls, too, are doing a great job of contributing," Ronan head coach Karla Moxley said.

Ronan frosh Alice Van Guten had a nice game, but the spotlight was on fellow frosh Mikailah Thompson, who had six blocks, shooting 3-for-5 from the field for six points.

"She had a fantastic night. That's great to see in a freshman, that we can get that kind of performance from her," Moxley said of Thompson.

Jordan Strozzi also hit double digits, with 10, while Ashlee Cheff had a nice drive down the lane for two in the third quarter and played great defense.

The good news for Mission is that they had seven girls who scored, showing that everyone can contribute a little, but head coach Les Rice noted they still need their own go-to girl — someone who can put up double digits.

"This time of year, we're still planning for us, not planning for Ronan. We try to work on fixing things that we have been doing poorly on. The girls are still trying to figure out their identity on the court, and we're really lacking that one girl that can give us 15, 18 points in a game," Rice said.

Mattea Grant played with her usual hustle, leading the team with seven points, Katie McDonald had five, Kelsey Cable and Kyla Mitchell had four, Lisa Larson had three and Rachel Jensen and Jordan Adams both had two.

Mission did a good job of staying with Ronan early on, as the Maidens switched it up from man to a 2-3 zone in the second. Mission used a man-to-man defense briefly in the second, forcing some turnovers, but Ronan led 19-15 at the half. Grant was fouled at the buzzer, and made a free throw before the teams filed into the locker rooms.

The Maidens did a good job of moving the ball around the perimeter, as Larson scored the team's first six points of the third. A free throw by Lisa Larson for the Lady 'Dogs broke a four-minute scoring drought, and Katie McDonald drained a 3-pointer to bring the team to within seven at the end of three.

Cheff did a good job on defense, getting a couple of steals. In the fourth, Thompson had another block, and then fed the outlet pass to Strozzie for the lay-up, who added a 3-pointer to make it 37-25.

"We scored first in the fourth quarter to make it 28-23, and we had them in sight at that point, but when Jordan Strozzi scored two big baskets that put it out of reach," Rice said.

Moxley was pleased with her upperclassmen, as well as the younger players.

"Jordan had five steals, and Kaylee shot very well, going 11 for 16 from the field," Moxley said. "I knew we wanted to utilize our post players against them, and we were able to do that."

Mission traveled to Loyola Tuesday night, and results were unavailable by presstime. The Lady Bulldogs will go to Eureka with the boys Friday night for a doubleheader.

"That will be our first conference game. We got a look at Eureka earlier in the season [during Mission's tip-off tourney]. They were picked to win our league, but were defeated by Thompson Falls," Rice said. "Eureka has a really good post player, and as she goes, so do they. We'll have to really focus on her."

Ronan 25, Hamilton 40

"Offensively, we didn't execute well. Defensively, I thought we did a good job. Hamilton is a very well coached team. We just couldn't get into our offense and execute," Moxley said.

Larson led the team with 13 points, Strozzi had seven, Thompson had four, and Ali Anderson had one.

The Maidens will travel to Valley Christian on Thursday, and host Whitefish at home on Saturday for their first conference game. As expected, Ashley Ferda is leading the Lady Bulldogs again this year, and containing her is the key, Moxley noted.

The good news for the Maidens is they have one more upperclassman option, as Ishan Wylie was cleared to play. Allison Crenshaw is still day-to-day, and Carli Starkel is out until mid-January.