Mission girls grab district title with win over T-Falls

Zach Urness, Leader Staff

Aren’t championship games suppose to be nail-biting, down-to-the-wire affairs? Not if you’re the Lady Bulldogs, apparently.

The Mission Lady Bulldogs took all of the drama out of the Saturday night division 8-B title match-up at the ‘Dog House, and the seniors were able to go out in style, as the Lady ‘Dogs sent the Thompson Falls Bluehawks packing with a dominate win, 45-30.

“If you were going to script it, I don’t think you could do it any better,” said head coach Les Rice. “Down to the last game, the division championship on the line, senior night, the team you lost to earlier in the year … The girls are pretty excited.”

The game stayed reasonably close through the first quarter, but the turning point came in the second quarter. With her team already ahead 11-6, All-State guard Ashley Mitchell decided she would put any though of a Lady ‘Dog loss to sleep, first driving to the baseline and hitting a jump-shot, and then hitting a trey to put her team up 18-6. As if that wasn’t enough, she then grabbed a steal drove the length of the court and dropped a nice dish to Mattea Grant for the score. On the next Lady ‘Dogs possession Mitchell grabbed a missed shot and scored, putting her team up 20-8. By the end of the second quarter Mitchell had scored seven of her game-high 24 points, and Mission was ahead 23-11.

Mitchell was not the only reason the Lady ‘Dogs took control of the game. The Mission defense, which altered between a man-to-man and a pressure zone, caused chaos for T-Falls and led to numerous turnovers. Coach Rice also stressed the importance of rebounding.

“It was out best rebounding game of the season,” he said. “They were taller than us and we out-rebounded them. That was big.”

With a comfortable lead in the second half, the Lady ‘Dogs switched their offensive philosophy. As Thompson Falls sat back in their 2-3 zone, Mission players moved the ball around the perimeter in a smooth and methodical fashion, taking lots of time off the clock during each possession and picking spots to attack.

“They did not want to play us man-to-man,” commented Rice.

The result was two fancy no-look assists from Mattea Grant, two smooth jump-shots from Barb Pfeifer and of course, plenty of driving lay-ups from Ashley Mitchell.

With the game in hand late in the fourth quarter, the Mission seniors Ashley Mitchell, Barb Pfiefer and Kelly Wagner were able to exit the game to a standing ovation and a hug from their coach.

“Winning the division was one of our goals,” said Rice. “And it is nice to be able to reach that.”

The Lady Bulldogs also won at Plains on Friday, 48-27. The Mission defense was ferocious in the second quarter, shutting out Plains and holding them to a mere 20 points through three quarters. Ashley Mitchell, the leagues second-leading scorer, scored 22 points; 16 of which came in the first quarter, to lead the team. She was followed by Barb Pfeifer who dropped 11 points, Jordan Adams who had seven points. Mattea Grant and Lisa Larson both had four points.

“We kind of got lucky and played them at the right time,” said Rice. “They were missing their starting points guard and were coming off a tough game.”

Mission will receive a first-round bye in the District 8-B tournament that began Wednesday in Libby. The Lady ‘Dogs will take on the winner of Troy v. Arlee from the first round.

“We’ve gotta win the first game,” said Rice. “That’s all were focusing on.”