Lady Vikings bumped by Twin Bridges

By Trent Makela / Leader Staff

The Charlo Lady Vikings looked like an experienced, savvy team poised to make a run to the championship at the Western C Divisional Tournament in Butte last week. Then, they tried to cross Twin Bridges.

Charlo (19-2) impressed by dispatching a tough Sheridan Lady Panthers team (17-6) in the tournament's opening round, but were run into exhaustion by the top-ranked Lady Falcons (23-1) on Friday night. The Lady Vikings eventually caught their breath and put up a stiff fight against Shields Valley (15-6) on Saturday morning, but missed a potentially game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer to end their season.

Charlo made it to last season's state championship game and many expected a rebuilding year after they graduated four high-scoring seniors. A trio of seniors — Samijo Kain, Staci Stipe and Justine Morigeau — stepped up to guide the Lady Vikings to a two-loss regular season, though, and played their final game Saturday.

"Part of losing seniors every year is the leadership and experience that's gone. When we lose three, we need to find some more girls who can step up and play at a varsity level," Charlo coach Bret Thompson said. "That's all part of the fun, though. We have some young girls that think they're ready to fill those roles. We'll find out if they can next fall."

Juniors Shianne Montgomery, Rochelle Toussaint and Turquoise Devereaux will join sophomore contributors Stephanie Murphy, Stephanie Maughan, Jaris Kelley and Courtney Couture to form an experienced and deep core of players next season.

"It's too early to tell what next year's team will look like," Thompson said. "Players get better, girls move away and new ones come in. We'll see how it looks next winter."

Shields Valley 40, Charlo 37

Stephanie Maughan hit a 3-pointer nine seconds into the third quarter to pull the score even, but the Lady Rebels answered with a 9-0 run and never looked back.

Maughan's deep shot got her teammates and the Charlo fans braced for a momentum shift that never came.

"We just struggled after that," Thompson said. "We all thought that was going to spark something. We had a hard time getting the ball into an area to score and it never happened."

The second half looked much like the first, with the Lady Vikings putting together miniature runs but never closing the gap completely.

"It took us forever to get going offensively and defensively. Some of it might have been from what Friday night took out of us," Thompson said. "We just weren't quite ready for what they had to throw at us."

The Lady Rebels had a hand in the scoring troubles, keeping Charlo's possessions out of the key and away from their interior scorers. The Lady Vikings were forced into an unusually high number of jumpers and struggled from outside.

"I thought we could have gotten the ball inside more," Thompson said. "If you stand outside and shoot the three it hurts your chances to get easy points at the line. We needed those easy points."

Charlo 11 9 8 9 — 37

Shields Valley 13 10 11 6 — 40

CHARLO — Stephanie Maughan 3 1-2 9, Stephanie Murphy 2 3-6 7, Staci Stipe 1 0-0 3, Samijo Kain 4 0-0 8, Justine Morigeau 3 0-0 6, Shianne Montgomery 3 0-0 6, Jaris Kelley 0 2-2 2.

SHIELDS VALLEY — Cassie Stutterheim 1 0-0 2, Laura Sarrazin 3 2-2 8, Cassie Woosley 2 2-3 7, Clare Hoyem 3 0-1 6, Susanne Grobler 0 0-2 0, Kelsi Dyke 2 4-4 9, Whitney Hoyem 1 0-0 2, Katlyn Tomschin 3 0-0 6.

Twin Bridges 55, Charlo 45

The Lady Vikings led for the entire first quarter, but the top-seeded Lady Falcons mixed full-court zone presses with a trapping man defense to scramble Charlo's offense for the rest of Friday night. Twin Bridges became just the second team to defeat Charlo, with Hot Springs notching both of the Lady Vikings' previous defeats.

"We expected the press and the trap. They didn't do anything different from what they have done all year," Thompson said. "[The press and trap] came mostly after we sent a couple of our ball-handlers to the bench. If you start taking girls off the floor who need to be on the floor, it's going to change the game."

Forwards Montgomery and Murphy both sat out portions of the second quarter and most of the third with foul trouble for Charlo. Both were also fouled out for the final minutes of the contest.

"They fouled a bunch too. They just had a few more big bodies inside," Thompson said. "Our two biggest girls inside were sitting on the bench, and that's the area where we got the worst in my opinion."

Murphy was able to score 17 points in her limited minutes, including an 11-of-16 effort from the free-throw line. Kelley came off the bench to score six points and spark several fast-breaks that helped Charlo to keep the game competitive in the second half.

Twin Bridges 12 18 16 9 — 55

Charlo 13 10 10 12 — 45

CHARLO — Stephanie Maughan 3-8 1-2 7, Stephanie Murphy 3-4 11-16 17, Staci Stipe 1-2 0-2 2, Samijo Kain 2-5 2-2 7, Courtney Couture 1-4 1-2 3, Jaris Kelley 1-3 4-6 6, Shianne Montgomery 0-2 1-2 1, Justine Morigeau 1-1 0-0 2.

TWIN BRIDGES — Ashley Mulholland 0-4 11-15 11, Dara Novich 2-6 0-1 4, Kelcy Lott 1-8 2-4 4, Janelle Schmit 1-6 7-8 9, Kerri Mulholland 1-6 0-0 2, Cassie Elpel 0-3 0-0 0, Leah Cox 1-3 2-2 4, Dawne Degel 7-14 7-7 21.

Charlo 40, Sheridan 37

Thursday afternoon's game saw the two teams shoot a combined 1-for-21 from behind the three-point line, and one of them still managed to win.

The barrage of missed jumpers resulted in a heap of offensive rebounds and free-throw attempts for both teams. A scrappy effort put Charlo on top.

The Lady Vikings were just 12-for-22 on free-throws in the game, but Kain was perfect on four fourth-quarter attempts to help Charlo hang on for the win.

"Luckily we had the ball in [Kain's] hands when they were fouling," Thompson said. "We were finally able to make good on our opportunities."

Murphy went 8-for-12 from the floor and scored a game-high 20 points with nine rebounds to pace Charlo. Kelley chipped in eight points and six rebounds for the Lady Vikings.

"We got the ball inside really well. We were able to throw it in to [Murphy] with two or three girls around her and she scored," Thompson said. "We got some second chances and we hit some big shots."

Charlo 11 6 8 15 - 40

Sheridan 5 12 8 12 - 37

CHARLO - Stephanie Maughan 1-7 0-0 2, Stephanie Murphy 8-12 4-8 20, Staci Stipe 0-7 1-2 1, Samijo Kain 1-8 5-7 7, Shianne Montgomery 1-3 0-0 2, Jaris Kelley 3-3 2-5 8, Justine Morigeau 0-0 0-0 0, Courtney Couture 0-0 0-0 0 0.

SHERIDAN - Courtney Kaatz 0-3 3-4 3, Sydnee Burke 3-11 1-2 8, Anika Ward 3-7 0-0 6, Jackie Philpott 2-5 1-2 5, Juliana Bartoletti 4-9 1-1 9, Erika Kitto 1-8 2-2 4, Jennie Jensen 0-2 2-2 2.