Lady Pirates basketball hope for postseason revival

The Polson Lady Pirates basketball team has an unenviable task in an unenviable bracket even in the hypothetical scenario they were to defeat the Class A defending state-champion Butte Central in the first round of Class A Divisional Wednesday at 4 p.m. at Hamilton.

If the Lady Pirates were to defeat the Maroons, they would have to play the winner of Hamilton and Columbia Falls in the second round. If they end up on the loser’s side of the bracket, they will play the loser of Stevensville and Whitefish. Polson split with Stevi during the season and swept Whitefish.

“It doesn’t matter what seed you are, you are going to play some tough teams,” Lady Pirates’ Coach Joe Quinn said.

Quinn, whose team earned the No. 3 seed, said he knows the Lady Maroons will be a challenge.

“I guess that is just how the season has gone,” Quinn said. “In order to succeed, we have to avoid turnovers, play with a lot of energy, be able to rebound and put the ball in the hole.”

Quinn said he felt rebounding will be a “challenge” against the Lady Maroons.

“Rebounding and turnovers has been a big thing and that will be a challenge for us when we play Butte Central,” Quinn explained. “They are the defending state champions and just the match up itself will be a challenge.”

According to Quinn, Butte Central has three guards that put a lot of pressure on opposing defenses.

In an earlier meeting with Polson, in last year’s divisionals, the Lady Pirates lost 58-24.

“We’ve had some really good quarters,” Quinn said. “We will start off very well but we have struggled to put four quarters together. In order to defeat teams, we are going to have to shoot the ball well, rebound the basketball well, and play solid defense without turning the basketball over.”

Quinn said one of the major challenges for his team is putting together four solid quarters of basketball. He felt if his team starts doing that more consistently, they will be more competitive.

“I think, at times, it’s just putting four quarters all together,” Quinn said. :That is going to take recovering and getting ready for the next day of the tournament. You don’t have a lot of days off to get back into it.”

Quinn said he is going to need significant contributions from Kaelyn Smith, Lauren Lefthand, and Mollie Fisher in order to make a run in this competitive bracket.

“We are going to have to have big games from our leading points scorers but we are also going to need others to step up, knock down some big shots, play some defense and get some points (in transition) for us,” Quinn said.

One major contributor to the Lady Pirates will be Mikayla Croft, according to Quinn.

“Mikayla has had some really big games for us against Eureka and Whitefish,” Quinn said. “We are going to have to have big games from our big three. They are going to have to be in the game, work hard, and play together as a team in order for us to have success in this tournament.”

Since the start of the season, Quinn has emphasized to his Lady Pirates that tournament time is the start of a new season.

“We kind of talked about this being a marathon,” Quinn said. “If we hit goals all along and know that everyone goes into divisional with a 0-0 record, we have the chance to see what we can do. This is March Madness and I think we have the ability to upset some people.”

Polson 44, Whitefish 28

On Senior Night, honored seniors Lauren Lefthand, Mollie Fisher and Mikayla Croft combined for more than two dozen to keep the visiting Lady Bulldogs chained to the confines of the winless doghouse. Polson (2-4, 4-14)

Polson 19 6 8 11 – 44

Whitefish 5 11 6 6 – 28

POLSON – Lauren Lefthand 14, Kaelyn Smith 11, Quinn Motichka 6, Mollie Fisher 6, Mikayla Croft 5, Alex Pierre 1, Olivia Perez 1.

WHITEFISH – Annisa Brown 9, Marlee Bender 8, Kaiah Moore 5, Lauren Schulz 4, Hope Brown 1, Diana Vasquez 1.

3FGs – W1 (Schulz), P (Smith, Lefthand). REBOUNDS – W38* (A.Brown 13), P33* (Fisher *6, Croft *6, Lefthand 5, Smith 4, Perez *4, BigBeaver *3, Motichka 2, Pierre 2, Mayorga). *10AST (Lefthand 3, Smith 3, Fisher 2, Motichka, Mayorga) 19STL (Smith 7, Lefthand 5, Fisher 3, Alex Pierre 2, Motichka, Croft). 9BLK (Lefthand 3, Smith 3, Fisher 2, BigBeaver). (Sa18Feb17)

Asterisk (*) denotes stat variant(s) where informal JCH tally may differ from sideline specs: P26r (Fisher 5r, Croft 4r, Perez 3r, BigBeaver 1r, Mayorga 0r), P9a (Mayorga 0r0a).