Bring on Butte: Charlo girls are district champs

RONAN - Nobody can crack that Charlo Lady Vikings defense. Not

during the regular season. Not during the District 14-C

championship game, and certainly not during the semi-finals of that

same tournament.

RONAN - Nobody can crack that Charlo Lady Vikings defense. Not during the regular season. Not during the District 14-C championship game, and certainly not during the semi-finals of that same tournament.

Hot Springs, could only muster five points in their District 14-C semi-final tournament matchup against Charlo last Friday. The Lady Vikings shut out the Savage Heat in the first and third quarters en route to a 33-5 victory.

"The idea at this time of the season is that you want to be able to rise to the occasion" head coach Bret Thompson said. "The girls did a good job of doing that this weekend."

Charlo focused on not allowing easy buckets on the inside, something Hot Springs has been able to do against teams in the past, and making sure their guards couldn't get the ball to the post very easily. While the Lady Vikings clamped down on defense, Thompson said he would have liked to see better shooting on the other end.

"We missed a bunch of shots," Thompson said. "It is something we definitely need to work on."

Junior Kinley Pope was again the offensive catalyst for

Charlo, scoring 13 points to help the Lady Vikings advance to the championship match on Saturday night.

Who was waiting for them? None other than their Lake

County rival, the Arlee Scarlets after they posted a 62-36

upset of No. 2 seed Noxon on Friday.

Arlee had a slim 22-16 lead over Noxon at halftime

and then outscored the Lady Red Devils 21-4 in the third quarter to pull away. Sophomore Kristyn Adams led the team with 24 points, sophomore Mahalia Hendren added 18 and freshman Whitney Malatare scored 10.

However, that offense couldn't crack the Lady Vikings

in the first quarter of the championship game on

Saturday as Charlo jumped out to a 14-1 lead in the first quarter. Arlee got their offense clicking after that but couldn't quite keep pace with the Lady Vikings' offense.

"The girls did a good job taking the ball right to the basket," Thompson said. "We got a lot of easy scores early."

Charlo had the "Ludeman Express" in freshman phenom Jordan Ludeman who scored 13 of her 16 points in the first half of the championship game.

"The girls on the team know that she needs to step up and score," Thompson said.

Ludeman took the tough shots and also took some punishment in a gritty performance, as her offensive output is something the Lady Vikings need to free up the triple and double-teams that other teams try to put on Pope.

"Kinley would draw a couple people and Jordan was able to drive," Thompson said.

Pope finished with 13 points as the Lady Vikings had a 33-9 halftime lead and cruised to a 57-24 victory over the Scarlets.

Junior Deondra Brown added nine for Charlo.

Arlee was led by Hendren, who had 13, and Malatare with nine.

Charlo 57, Arlee 24

Charlo - 14 - 19 - 10 - 14 - 57

Arlee - 1 - 8 - 9 - 6 - 24

Lady Vikings scoring - Jordan Ludeman 16, Kinley Pope 13, Deondra Brown 9, Dawn Blevins 5, Rachel Hoyt 5, Kelsie Blevins 4, Aspen Runkel 2, Jessica Foust 1, Royelle Esterby 1, Danika Stipe 1

Scarlets scoring - Mahalia Hendren 13, Whitney Malatare 9, Tayla Desjarlais 2

The victory secured Charlo's spot in the divisional tournament, while Arlee had to play a challenge game since they had not played consolation game winner Hot Springs.

Played on Monday, Arlee come out with a big 54-27 victory over Hot Springs to advance to divisionals.

The Savage Heat outscored the Scarlets 8-7 in the first

quarter before Arlee made a 15-5 run in the second. Then with a 22-13 lead at halftime, the Scarlets really turned things on in the second half.

While causing 16 turnovers and collecting eight steals, Arlee's offensive was able to continue to roll and the Scarlets outscored Hot Springs 32-14 in the second half.

Leading the Scarlets was Malatare with 13 points and Hendren with 11.

Along with Charlo, Arlee will advance to the Western B Divisionals this weekend in Butte.

Arlee 54, Hot Springs 27

Arlee - 7 - 15 - 16 - 16 - 54

Hot Springs - 8 - 5 - 8 - 6 - 27

Scarlets scoring - Whitney Malatare 13, Mahalia Hendren 11, Kristyn Adams 9, Tayla Desjarlais 8, Becca Nelson 2, Erin Schmiedbauer 2

Arlee 62, Noxon 36

Arlee - 12 - 10 - 21 - 19 - 62

Noxon - 10 - 6 - 4 - 16 - 36

Scarlets scoring - Kristyn Adams 24, Mahalia Hendren 18, Whitney Malatare 10, Tayla Desjarlais 7, Skyla Perry 2, Tiffany O'Neill 1

Charlo 33, Hot Springs 5

Charlo - 5 - 7 - 9 - 12 - 33

Hot Springs - 0 - 2 - 0 - 3 - 5

Lady Vikings scoring - Kinley Pope 13, Jordan Ludeman 8,

Rachel Hoyt 6, Dawn Belvins 2, Kelsie Blevins 2, Aspen Runkel 2