Division foes square off in local rivalry
<p>The Scarlets' Whitney Malatare crosses over Jordan Ludeman of Charlo Friday night in Arlee. Malatare scored 19 points to lead all scorers. </p>
ARLEE – It’s no secret that the intra-district game between the Arlee Scarlets and the Charlo Lady Vikings would be intense. But could you anticipate this slugfest would compile over 50 fouls and over 60 free throws attempted? This style of play seemingly played to Arlee’s advantage as they squeaked out a 52-48 victory over the visiting Lady Vikings Friday night.
Whitney Malatare led the way for the Scarlet’s with 19 points, 9 of them coming from the free throw line. Alexis Shick gave the Scarlets 14 points and 8 rebounds as Arlee won its seventh game in a row.
The game was decided at the line, literally, as the Vikings converted on 4 less free throws than the Scarlets, who ultimately won by 4 points. But Scarlet coach Richard Bachmeier – although proud of his team and their victory – knows that they need to improve at their shooting, especially the free ones.
“It’s a team goal to get to the line and shoot well from the line,” said coach Bachmeier. “We got to the line, we didn’t shoot it that well, our goal is 80 percent, but it was a big win for us against Charlo.”
Even though both teams got to the line a staggering amount of times, both teams shot poorly. Charlo shot 15-28 (54 percent) from the free throw line and Arlee went 19-34 (56 percent). Both teams showed aggressiveness on the offensive end, but also demonstrated undisciplined defense by committing a total of 52 fouls.
After dropping their first two games of the season, the Scarlets (5-0 in league, 7-2 overall) are on a tear winning 8-games in a row, including a decisive victory over Two Eagle River on Saturday 61-22. The first-place Arlee Scarlets finished the first-quarter of Saturday’s game with a 28-2 lead, more than enough for the Scarlets to draw upon their bench the rest of the game.
“We were successful in running the fast break and we got a lot of easy layups,” said Bachmeier.
The win displayed how deep this Arlee girls team is, 9 of the 12 players in uniform scored for the Scarlets.
The loss ended Charlo’s 5 game winning streak and they now sit 2 games behind Arlee at (4-2, 7-2).