Arlee Warriors prepare for Plains

The Arlee boys basketball team’s powerful offense gave them a luxury most teams can’t afford.

The Warriors’ margin of victory has been so significant that it allows their coach Zanen Pitts to refine several details.

Arlee defeated Seeley-Swan 98-47 and then turned around and won their conference-opener on the road against Hot Springs 95-19 Saturday afternoon at Hot Springs gymnasium.

Pitts echoes virtually the same sentiment as last season as he is focused on improving his team to return to the champion-caliber form that allowed them to defeat Manhattan Christian 71-67 to capture the Montana High School Activities Association Class C state championship for the 2016-2017 season.

“Right now we are just trying to get our defensive rotations in,” Pitts said. “We have the full court, half court, and quarter court rotations and we are trying to transition a whole new crew of guys getting into transition and working together and we are working on getting guys to fill the lane and find their outline so we can go down the court with the ball.”

Last season Pitts credited utilizing the break to transform his solid group of players into championship contenders and in order to achieve that it starts with repetition, according to Pitts.

“Over the break, we go over and we shoot the ball a lot and we spend a lot more time in the gym working on our shot,” Pitts said. “(During the break) we focus on refining our base from summer ball and get the cobwebs out as much as we can.”

Pitts calls the break “basketball school,” and he said this philosophical approach towards winning games allowed them to capture the championship title in a very competitive year.

“I think it was a big factor in us being able to win (the championship) last year,” Pitts said. “We would spend one hour, 30 minutes shooting and making three to four hundred shots and that really increases our shot percentage and it’s like Stephon Curry said, ‘if you just aren’t hitting shoot more.’”

The Warriors will travel to Plains on one extensive road trip for a rematch of the battle of two teams that were last season ranked No. 1 in Class C. The last time these two teams met in a regular season game Arlee was able to dethrone Plains on their home court stripping them of their No. 1 ranking.

Pitts said it isn’t easy to go into the Horsemen’s home and try to get a victory as they will travel to Plains High School.

“Anytime you get to play a team that you have a lot of history with you get super excited to play them,” Pitts said. “The game should be very fast and up-tempo and it should be a packed house.”

Pitts said he felt the game will be intense as the Horsemen try to recapture some of their team prestige in hopes of defeating a Warriors team that has generated nearly 200 points.

“It’ll be another packed house and it’ll be a high energy, high-intensity game,” Pitts said.

Arlee 95, Hot Springs 19

Arlee (4-0), Hot Springs (0-4)

Arlee 33 28 19 15 – 95

Hot Springs 6 2 8 3 – 19

ARLEE – *Greg Whitesell 10 0-0 24, Phillip Malatare 8 2-2 18, *Will Mesteth 8 0-0 17, Isaac Fisher 8 0-0 16, Lane Johnson 5 0-0 12, Darshan Bolen 2 0-0 4, Lane Schall 2 0-0 4.

HOT SPRINGS – Brandon Knudsen 7, Luke W. 5, Justin Salmi 3, Tyler Carr 2, Sean Fisher 2

3FGs: A7-21 (Whitesell 4-8, Johnson 2-3, Mesteth 1-6). A29REB (Malatare 17, I.Fisher 7, Mesteth 2, Whitesell 2, Bolen 2, Johnson 2, Schall). A29AST (Malatare 12, Mesteth 7, Whitesell 3, Johnson 3, I.Fisher, Bolen). A36STL (Mesteth 9, Malatare 8, Whitesell 8, Johnson 5, Bolen 4, I.Fisher 2). A4

BLK (I.Fisher 2, Johnson 2). A22DEFL (Malatare 5, I.Fisher 4, Johnson 4, Whitesell 3, Mesteth 3). (Sa16Dec17)

Asterisk (*) denotes stat variant(s) where MaxPreps postings differ from media coverage: Whitesell 22p, Will Mesteth 19p.

Arlee 98, Seeley-Swan 49

Arlee (3-0), Seeley-Swan (2-1)

Arlee 32 27 24 15 – 98

SS 13 12 17 7 – 49

ARLEE – Phillip Malatare 23 1-2 48, Greg Whitesell 7 1-2 17, Will Mesteth 7 0-0 16, Lane Johnson 3 1-5 7, Isaac Fisher 2 0-0 4, Billy Fisher 2, Lane Schall 2, *Darshan Bolen 0 2-2 2.

SEELEY-SWAN – Avery Smith 12, Cameron Hines 9, Keaton Johnson 8, Owen Mercado 7, Hunter Schelmerdine 7, Dakota Wood 4, Chance Johnson 2.

3FG: A5-11 (Mesteth 2-4, Whitesell 2-4, Malatare 1-2). A38REB (Malatare 16, Mesteth 5, I.Fisher 5, Johnson *4, N. Coulson 3, Whitesell 2, Cody Tanner 2, Schall). A19AST (Malatare 9, Whitesell 5, Mesteth 4, Johnson 2, Coulson). A12STL (Malatare 5Mesteth 4, Whitesell, Tanner, Schall). A3BLK (*I.Fisher, Malatare, Johnson). A10DEFL (Mesteth 3, Whitesell 3). (Th14Dec17)

Asterisk (*) denotes stat variant(s) where MaxPreps postings differ from media coverage: Bolen misidentified as Mullen, Johnson 10r, I.Fisher 6b.