Scarlets get critical road wins over Hot Springs, Plains

The Arlee Scarlets have already won more games then they did last season before entering the break.

Last season, the Scarlets started their season out at a .500 record and ended up finishing second in Class C, falling to Belt, a team that played in their tenth-consecutive Class C state championship game.

Arlee won back-to-back contests defeating Seeley-Swan 45-30 and won its conference opener at Hot Springs 53-31. These games are two of their six consecutive road games they will play. The Scarlets won’t host a home game until they host Class B Mission High School on Jan. 2.

Scarlets coach Bill Stockton said he felt his team is “playing well” at this juncture of the season where he is still experimenting with lineup combinations, no different than the scenario he faced at this time last season.

“It’s going well and we played pretty good this weekend,” Stockton said. “We were able to win both games and I felt like we did a good job controlling both games from the tip-off. The last few years we played Seeley and struggled early against them. We ended up playing in the Divisional to beat them. From the beginning of that game against Seeley this year, we were able to control the game. It was nice playing a game on the road and to be able to do that.”

The 53-31 road victory over the Savage Heat was a critical game and allowed them to start the conference portion of their season off right.

“The victory over Hot Springs was huge and they are a pretty scrappy young team,” Stockton said. “It is always hard to go into someone else’s gym, especially early in the year, and get a ‘W.’ Our team came out pretty well. Our defense transitioned well into offense and got shots. We were able to get a pretty big lead and work in a lot of girls.”

The Scarlets got some help from their interior players Nellie Desjarlais and Alyssia Vanderburg, who combined for a total of 36 points in the victory over the Lady Savage Heat.

“We are trying to do some different things on defense because of our size and it wasn’t until later (last year) that we were able to adjust and see what our team identity was,” Stockton said. “Earlier in the year, that is what you want to do is see who plays well together and who can play what position. We were able to use that to our advantage against Hot Springs and Seeley-Swan.”

Arlee will also play district-rival Plains on Friday at Plains prior to the Christmas break.