Simply perfect, Charlo girls dominate through 18-0 season

Zach Urness, Leader Staff

Newton’s Law dictates that everything that goes up, must come down. The Charlo Lady Vikings, however, have stayed suspended in the stratosphere all year long, stubbornly refusing to accept common realities like gravity, or for that matter, a single loss.

“I know the girls are excited but I don’t know if it has really sunk in yet,” said head coach Bret Thompson. “This, winning every game, is what you try to do.”

Charlo girls finished off their undefeated regular season with three wins last week, putting icing on the cake with a big victory on senior night. The perfect season is Bret Thompson’s first in 21 years at Charlo, and while he was happy to finish the season unbeaten, he is already looking ahead to the district tournament.

“I think that we have some good motivation heading into the playoffs,” he said.

The final three wins came over St. Regis, Alberton and Thompson Falls last week, fueled, as they have been all season, by a dominate defense. The Lady Vikes held their opponents to an average of 25 points per game last week and outscored them by an overall tally of 167-76.

The historic win came against Class B Thompson Falls (8-8) on Saturday, as the Lady Vikings beat down the Bluehawks 55-29. The game stayed close through the first quarter as Charlo took the lead 12-10. The Lady Vikes put the hammer down in the second quarter, outscoring T-Falls 14-4 and taking a 24-14 lead into half-time. The Bluehawks got as close as eight points in the third quarter, but the Lady Vikes sailed into history with a 21-5 drubbing of T-Falls in the fourth to take home the win.

“It was a really good game,” commented Thompson. “Both teams played well and extremely hard on defense. They threw some different things at us, and the girls had to make a lot of ajustments on the floor.”

Ma’Rya Hungerford led the team with 19 points and seven steals. Stevie Leigh-Sammons added nine points to go along with eight steals and seven rebounds and Amanda Murphy also chipped in nine points. Hayley Carr had eight points, Staci Stipe had five points, Stephanie Murphy added three points and Shianne Montgomery two.

Charlo faced perhaps their toughest challenge of the week as they traveled to Alberton (10-7) on Thursday. The Lady Vikings got off to a hot start, distancing themselves from the Panthers right away with a 24-10 run in the first quarter fueled by Amanda Murphy’s nine points. The Lady Vikings held serve in the second quarter as both teams scored 10 points, and Charlo took a 34-20 lead into half-time.

Charlo turned on their signature defense in the second half, holding Alberton to seven points in the final two frames en route to a 54-27 win.

“It is always tough to win on the road,” expounded Thompson. “They shot the ball well, but fortunatly, we also shot the ball well. It was a good win — we might run into them during the tournament.”

Amanda Murphy led all scorers with 15 points and Shianne Montgomery added 10. Hayley Carr had nine points and Ma’Rya Hungerford dropped eight. Stevie-Leigh Sammons followed with six points, Stephanie Murphy had four points and Turquoise Deveraux had two points.

The Lady Vikes first win of the week came in particularly dominating fashion against the St. Regis Tigers, who were held to a grand total of four points in the first half and nine points through the first three quarters. Charlo won by a final score of 58-20. Stevie Leigh-Sammons nearly outscored St. Regis by herself, dropping 18 points for the game, including eight during a first quarter in which Charlo jumped out to a 22-4 lead. The Lady Vikes did not give up a single point in the second quarter, and went into the half ahead 36-4. The rest of the game was a formality and many of Charlo’s JV players got a chance to play in the fourth.

“It was good to get some of the JV girls a couple of quarters of varsity experience,” commented Thompson.

Nine players scored for the Vikings against St. Regis. Ma’Rya Hungerford had 11 points, Amanda Murphy had eight and Hayley Carr had seven. Shianne Montgomery added six points, Stephanie Maughan had three and Jaris Kelly and Turquoise Deveraux both had two points. Stephanie Murphy had one point in the game.

The Lady Vikings have a bye in the first round of the district tournament and will face either St. Regis or Drummond in their first game. The game will begin at 6 p.m Thursday in Missoula.

“It was great to end the season on such a good note,” said Thompson. “But we’re focusing more on the tournament.”