Warriors and Scarlets play night for seniors

ARLEE — The Warriors and Scarlets got together for their final game of the season and a senior night celebration last Saturday. The Arlee Warriors played Thompson Falls earlier in the week and both teams finished it all off against Lincoln before the start of the District 13-C tournament.

The Warriors first fell 79-77 to Thompson Falls in an exciting one.

“It was a shoot-out basically,” Warrior head coach Clyde Tucker said.

With under two seconds left, the Warriors, down two, denied the in-bound pass and Thompson Falls was forced to chuck it down court in desperation. Senior Wyatt O’Neill picked the ball off and sent it flying toward the basket from mid-court, but it didn’t hit its mark.

The next night, the Warriors had better luck against Lincoln, finishing them off 75-49. In this one, O’Neill scored 23, senior Arlyn Matt had 12, senior Cubby Pierre and sophomore Thomas McClure each scored eight and sophomore Trae Burland scored seven.

Late in the win and to the applause of his team, senior Ethan Willoughby scored a basket and took the foul for the ‘and one.’ It was one of Willoughby’s favorite moments of his career.

“I was hoping I wouldn’t miss,” he said. “And I was hoping I wouldn’t air-ball my ‘and one.”

He didn’t air-ball his shot.

Matt said his team handled their team business like adults, and it made the team run smoothly.

“If something is said it’s settled right there,” he said. “We don’t have no grudges or anything and that’s nice in a team”

Pierre said watching Willoughby get those last two points was one of his favorite moments as well.

“It was awesome,” he said.

He also remembered a trey he shot to put a game into overtime against Troy the week before.

O’Neill said his favorite times were just playing with the boys on the team.

“It’s been a blast,” he said. “I’m going to miss it.”

It’s not over yet. The boys get a bye through the first round of districts then play at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday at Loyola High School in Missoula.

The Scarlet seniors also had their moments to remember.

Their goodbyes, memories and thank you’s were read over a loud speaker in between the games along with the boys. Maybe senior Veronica Nelson captured it best in her send-off.

“I grew up with the coolest kids and they will be missed,” she said.

Senior Kelci Apland put in her two cents as well, saying that life is limitless.

“You can succeed at anything if you put your mind to it,” she told her fellow Warriors and Scarlets.

All of the seniors were very thankful of their parents and fans for the support they received.

Against Lincoln, the Scarlets shot 17-25 from the line to pull out a 51-32 win over Lincoln for their last game of the year.

“That was a huge improvement for us,” Scarlets head coach Thersa Brown said.

Sophomore Melissa Ivanoff scored 18 in the win, freshman Kenzi Bradshaw scored 16, and Apland added 13.

Ivanoff also finished a perfect 8-8 at the line, six of them in the final period of play.

In the fourth quarter Arlee really put it to Lincoln after they slowed things down and focused on setting up and ball control to pull off a 17-7 fourth quarter in favor of the Scarlets.

“I think that helped them all – even with their defense,” Brown said.

The Scarlets face Victor at 2:30 p.m. at the District 13-C tournament at Loyola.

“We beat them both times but it’s tough to beat a team a third time,” Brown said. “We cannot overlook them. If we come out like we have been we’ll do pretty good.”

The top two finishers from the tournament will get a ticket to the divisional tournament the following week.