Scarlets b-ballers topple Florence in opener, get ready for Native American Classic

ARLEE — Arlee High School girls basketball coach Bill Stockton is still in the process of mixing and matching his young lineup even after their 67-48 opening season victory over Class-B Florence.

Stockton felt like the guard play of the Lady Falcons gave the inexperienced team an opportunity to learn after the Scarlets won their first game of the season.

“We had a game this weekend against Florence and they had some really tough guards,” Stockton said. “I felt our guard play was going to be one of our team’s weaknesses headed into the season. We did do a better job with descending guards. Hopefully, we will have some girls be able to step into that role.”

The Scarlets will have three young guards including sophomore Noelle West, junior Ashley Tanner, and junior Nellie Desjarlais. The Scarlets also had contributions from Carly Hergett, who finished with a double-double in the opening game of the season.

Arlee will open its MSU-Northern Native American Tournament playing Box Elder at 5:30 p.m. Friday night at MSU-Northern’s gymnasium in Havre. The game will be the rematch of the Class-C semifinal game, and then they will play Rocky Boy Saturday at MSU-Northern’s gym in the two-game tournament.

“We still have a lot of things to work on and we are still building continuity and trust with one another,” Stockton said. “I think this coming weekend’s MSU-Northern tournament will help build that because we haven’t spent a lot of time playing together.”

Stockton said he felt the guard play of the Box Elder team will “challenge” some of the inexperience of the Scarlets.

“I think we are going to have some strong guards,” Stockton said. “Box Elder is going to be quick and their guards are going to be tough. We will have different lineups. It’s going to be a long weekend and it gives us an opportunity to mesh well together.”

Box Elder finished as runner-up in the Class C state championship game last season. According to Stockton, they won’t be as strong as last year but will still be formidable as one of the best basketball traditions.

“They lost one of their better post players but they have a lot of guards that are returning and they can provide heavy pressure with their guards,” Stockton said. “They are capable of shooting great jump shots. The Box Elder players can all shoot and they can shoot the ball really well. In last year’s state semifinal, we had the lead early in the first half and we were able to cut the deficit to five points. We are expecting more of the same in this game (from Box Elder). Once the summer ended, we were looking for another opportunity to play them.”