Dogs stop Maidens

KALISPELL — The injury-ridden Maidens finished a difficult season at the Western B divisional tourney in Kalispell with a pair of losses this past weekend.

In first-round competition the Maidens dropped one 58-32 to eventual divisional runner-up Bigfork and then fell to Kate Klundt and the Whitefish Bulldogs 51-33 in the loser-out match.

Ronan head coach Jami Schall said it’s all about momentum for her team. And Bigfork started with a good swing of the stuff.

“We came out and we couldn’t get a bucket to fall for us,” Schall said. “And we struggled the rest of the game with that.”

After Bigfork won the first quarter 14-2, Ronan played the team fairly even in the second but fell further behind in the third. They showed they could play at times, but took a while to rev up the engine.

And against a team like Bigfork, playing half the time wasn’t enough.

Ronan’s bench saw some new faces in the tournament due to injuries. Ronan senior Jordan Strozzi suffered a potentially serious injury the week before and senior Jade Michel hurt her wrist early on taking a charge from Bigfork during the divisional game.

Maiden freshmen Tylynn Lefthand and Ashley Grandchamp, and sophomore Tailyr Irvine all saw their first varsity minutes at the tournament.

“And you know, they actually did pretty well,” Schall said of the young athletes. “They did good.”

Speaking of freshman, one Maiden who had seen plenty of varsity minutes was Morgan Belgarde.

Belgarde played like it too, putting up more than half of her team’s points. Belgarde finished with 17 on the scoreboard, shooting 71% from the field and 7-of-8 free throws.

That’s nearly 90 percent accuracy at the line.

Against Whitefish, Michel and the rest of the seniors came to play what would turn out to be their last game. Putting a tough record behind, Schall said the girls meant business in that one.

“I thought the girls were a lot more prepared and ready to play Saturday morning,” Schall said. “I thought we were going to come out and go big guns.”

Sometimes even if the will is there, the stroke just isn’t, and missed putbacks and trouble on the boards dug a hole for the Maidens.

It was a 10-point hole, and though the Maidens had competed with Whitefish over the course of the season and found that level of play to tie the second quarter and keep the second half tight in the divisional game, the pit was too deep to climb out of.     

Schall said Michel played, hurt wrist aside.

“She probably wasn’t 100 percent but she sure gave it her all because it was her last basketball game of her career and she wanted to be out there,” Schall said.

Starkel was another Ronan senior who tried to get things started, Schall said. But it didn’t turn out to be her best night, scoring eight to lead the team.

Michel shot a big three and finished with five and Belgarde had six.

Maiden senior Kaylee Larson, who was the one Schall used to d-up on the competition’s best, had her work cut out for her against Whitefish’s Klundt.

Again, she made things hard on the Whitefish star.

“She’s been our defensive player all season,” Schall said. “I’ve been putting her on the toughest girls that we go against and she does a great job. She handles it.”

Ronan senior Ashley Cheff had to fill in as point guard in Strozzi’s absence.

Schall said she played very well at the divisional. 

“That’s the hardest I’ve seen her play. She went out and she played tough. She tried to get things going.”

Strozzi, meanwhile, had to watch her team play its last game without her, not an easy thing to do.

“She was trying to be encouraging as much as she could because she wanted to be out there,” Schall said.

Strozzi may have only a high ankle sprain, but further evaluations are planned once the swelling goes down.

Ronan’s season finished without fireworks, but plenty of younger Maidens got a taste of the big show.

They will get another shot when 2010 rolls around the corner.