Camel cousins crushing competition

Ronan Maiden forward Lee Camel knew something about her cousin, Alicia Camel, that she was unaware of about herself going into Thursday night’s contest against Mission.

Lee Camel knew Alicia was on the cusp of reaching the 1,000-point threshold for her career. This milestone was something Alicia Camel admitted she was oblivious to heading into the game.

“Honestly, I didn’t even know and my coach (Ron Hanson) told me afterwards because no one else told me,” Alicia Camel, who scored her one thousandth point in the first half against the Mission Lady Bulldogs, said. “When I was asked ‘how much did you score?’ I said ’18 in one quarter,’ and the coach said ‘good because you needed 16 to reach 1,000.’ It was nice to hear that.’”

Lee Camel, her cousin and Maiden teammate, said she knew but didn’t tell Alicia.

“I knew of it but didn’t really think of it since we didn’t have a game this week and I kind of forgot about it,” Lee Camel said. “I knew she was really close but I didn’t tell her.”

Lee Camel knew and admitted she was counting her points to reach her milestone.

“I reached my 1,000th point against Mission in Mission off of a free throw, offensive rebound put back layup but I was hoping to get it last year because I only needed like 70 points at the end of the season,” Lee Camel admitted. “It was an amazing accomplishment and it is really amazing that we both reached the mark this year.”

Alicia Camel, who had to sit out a portion of her sophomore season because she transferred from Arlee to Ronan, could have possibly reached the plateau earlier in her career.

“I’ve always wanted to get 1,000 but it was a rough start, I was out for half of that season, and it affected my whole points things,” Alicia Camel said. “I moved from Arlee to here. I had to wait 90 days to play varsity basketball but honestly, that 90 days went by pretty fast.”

Alicia Camel, who worked on several facets of her game one season at a time, said every year she felt she “improved.”

“My junior year I scored more like 400,” Alicia Camel said. “I have scored way more this year than I did last year and my sophomore season, which was only like half of a season.”

Maidens’ Coach Ron Hanson put into perspective the accomplishment of his two key contributors.

“You know it’s a big deal,” Hanson said. “And it’s very rare that we’ve had two in one season. That is a testament to just how much talent is on this team.”

Hanson, whose team remains undefeated at this juncture of the season, said he felt the Maidens are playing at a higher level than last season, which they finished 0-2 in Montana Class-B state tournament.

“We were already playing at the same level at the beginning of the season,” Hanson said. “These girls have lofty goals and they work hard to reach them.”

Hanson said his team still hasn’t reached its potential for the season.

“We still haven’t come close to playing to our potential and there is a lot of room for improvement,” Hanson said. “We’ve improved in huge leaps and still may not be where we want to be at the end of the season.”

Hanson said he felt the fact that Alicia Camel wasn’t aware of her individual accomplishment is a positive reflection on her character.

“She wasn’t aware of it and it was fun to share that accomplishment with her,” Hanson said. “It’s not really rare for someone to not know. I would rather have a player not know as opposed to knowing because that shows that is she is focused on the team stuff that is really important.”