Warriors down top-ranked Horsemen in Plains
The Plains gym was full to capacity Friday evening as the second-ranked Arlee Warriors took on the top-ranked Horsemen. The Warriors avenged their only loss of the season (by four to Plains Dec. 20) in emphatic fashion, downing the Horsemen on their home court, 81-59.
A close game through two quarters, the Warriors used a 23-3 (including a 17 straight) at the end of the second and beginning of the third quarters to pull away for the 22-point victory.
“Yeah, (beating Plains) definitely felt good, but it was just another game and it means nothing unless we can produce three, four, five weeks down the road,” Warriors head coach Zanen Pitts said. “My players all agree that it is back to the drawing board for us.”
The Warriors trio of Phillip Malatare, Tyler Tanner and Will Mesteth combined to outscore the entire horsemen squad in the contest as Malatare finished with 29 points, Tanner had 24 and Mesteth finished with 22.
Malatare also added 12 rebounds, five steals and four assists in the win Tanner had eight rebounds, four steals and three assists.
The Warriors came out gunning in the opening quarter and built a 12-4 lead in the opening minutes of the contest before the Horsemen scored seven straight to cut the Arlee lead to one late in the frame. The Warriors answered with a 9-5 spurt that put Arlee up 21-16 after eight minutes of play.
The teams traded baskets in the opening minutes of the second quarter but Plains used a rally late in the quarter to take its only lead of the contest at 35-34 with 1:16 to play in the half.
The Warriors countered with the most decisive run of the contest, scoring the final six points of the half to go up 41-35 at the break before scoring the first 10 points of the third quarter to push their lead to 51-35.
The Warriors led 57-38 with 3:56 to play in the third quarter but Mesteth and Tanner each picked up their fourth foul on back-to-back plays, putting two of Arlee’s top scorers on the bench.
“Yeah, those fouls were part of our game plan,” Pitts said. “We wanted to be aggressive and to sacrifice a few calls. We got the two quick ones in the third quarter and Tanner fouled out with two minutes to play and Will still had four. I told the team they had to be smart and take what the other team was giving them.”
The Horsemen were only able to cut their deficit as low as 18 late in the third before the Warriors used a 12-3 run in the fourth to go up by 27 en route to the win.
The Horsemen were led by Aaren Vonheeder with 16 points in the loss while Jay VonHeeder had 14, Ryan Ovitt scored 13 and Kyle Weeks had 10.
With the victory, the Warriors improve to 13-1 on the season.
Arlee took on the Hellgate JV Tuesday evening. Results were not available at press time. The Warriors will be on the road this weekend as they play at Noxon Saturday.