Polson Lady Pirates get ready for District play
The Polson Lady Pirates will try to overcome their recent struggles of generating points in the third quarter as they prepare to enter the Class A Western District Tournament Feb. 15-17 at the Ronan Events Center.
Recently, the Lady Pirates have run with some of the proverbial big dogs of the conference and remained competitive with Browning and Columbia Falls, two elite teams in the conference, only to falter in the third quarter and each ending the competitive phases of what were closely-contested ball games.
This phenomenon of the third quarter struggle has perplexed coach Juan Perez.
“We’ve been struggling in the third quarter in the last few games and if we can get that figured out, we will be competing with a lot more folks,” Perez said.
In spite of the Pirates struggles generating offense in the third quarter, Perez said he felt his team has continued to improve.
“I think our team has come a long way defensively and we just keep getting stronger and stronger,” Perez said. “On offense, we still need to work on things and hopefully, we will be a little more competitive with our scoring.”
Perez also lost a key contributor in Olivia Perez, who struggled with a back injury towards the end of the season, and he will have to modify his roster to accommodate injuries.
“Our roster has kind of been down and Olivia hasn’t been playing too much because we are trying to rest her back,” Perez said. “I’ve been trying to rest her as much as we can for the tournament.”
Polson, who is the No. 6 seed, will take on Libby at 6:30 p.m. Thursday night at the Ronan Events Center. The winner of the game will take on Browning.
Perez said he will focus on playing several younger players in the double-elimination tournament.
“We will be able to play some younger players in the tournament and right now, that has given us some ideas on what we need to prepare for coming up,” Perez said. “We understand what we can do against bigger teams and we played against Browning, Bigfork and even Libby. We are playing tougher teams and I think that helps be prepared going into the tournament.”
Perez said he felt having Olivia back for Thursday might bolster the team’s ability to play against that Lady Loggers and be one of the four teams out of the six team pool that advances to Divisionals.
“My hope is to have Olivia back for Thursday’s game because she gives us a defensive pressure and she will battle for the rebound,” Perez said. “We didn’t have that ability against Bigfork and against Libby in our regular season finales. I think having her back will help us, allow us to step on the court and possibly get some wins in this tournament.”
Libby 44, Polson 21
At SKC gym in Pablo on Senior Night, the host Lady Pirates fought with ferocity on defense, but couldn’t counter the potency of the visiting Lady Logger offense. The double digit tally of MSUB basketball bound Shannon Reny countered three frames of Pirate point productivity, while the remainder of their roster ensured the outcome.
Polson (1-9, 2-16), Libby (6-4, 11-7)
Libby 12 12 7 13 – 44
Polson 3 7 4 7 – 21
LIBBY– Shannon Reny 18, Khalyn Hageness 9, Jayden Winslow 8, Brooklyn Rainer 3, Sammee Bradeen 2, Alli Collins 2, Syd Gier 2.
POLSON – Mahala Buffalo 2 0-0 5, Kaelyn Smith 2 0-2 5, Aisyln Baker 1 3-8 5, *Marina Mayorga 2 0-0 4, Natasha Gravelle 2.
3FGs: L5 (Hageness 3, Winslow 2), P2 (Smith, Buffalo). P24reb (Smith 6, Motichka 4, Mayorga 3, Gravelle 3, Misty Tenas 3, Buffalo 2, Sharmaine Zempel 2, Baker). P3ast (Smith 2, Gravelle). P5stl (Motichka 4, Baker). (Sa10Feb18) L26r, L11a, L10s
Asterisk (*) denotes stat variant(s) where sideline specs differ from media coverage: Mayorga 5p
Bigfork 45, Polson 28
At the SKC gym in Pablo, the host Lady Pirates tight defense disrupted visiting Valkyrie point productivity as Polson only trailed by two possessions at the half. But Bigfork reciprocated with a measured dose of defensive medicine to counteract the ill effects, pulling away in the second half when Polson found their denials a tough pill to swallow. NWA Polson (2-15), 6B Bigfork (15-1)
Bigfork 10 8 12 15 – 45
Polson 6 8 2 12 – 28
BIGFORK – ?Shae Anderson 13, Jaime Berg 10, Ellie Berreth 6, Heidi Schneller 6, Rakiah Grende 4, Jordan Nelson 2, Izzy Santistevan 2, Ashton McAnally 2.
POLSON – Kaelyn Smith 5 0-1 12, Olivia Perez 3 0-2 6, Quinn Motichka 2 0-0 4, Aislyn Baker 0 2-2 2, Mahala Buffalo 2, Natasha Gravelle 2.
3FGs: B4 (Berreth 2, Anderson, Berg), P2 (Smith 2). P16reb (Perez 3, Motichka 3, Baker 2, Gravelle 2, Smith 2, Buffalo, Marina Mayorga, Lisa Costilla, Sharmaine Zempel). P8ast (Motichka 3, Mayorga 3, Smith, Gravelle). P15stl (Mayorga 3, Baker 3, Smith 3, Motichka 2, Gravelle 2, Buffalo, Costilla). P5blk (Smith 4, Zempel). (Th08Feb18)