Scarlets survive challenge scare with Lady Tigers to punch their ticket to divisionals

The Arlee Scarlets didn’t earn their bid to Divisionals the way they had envisioned but at the conclusion of the Western 14-C District Tournament, they eventually ended up wit the desired result defeating the St. Regis Lady Tigers 54-43 in the challenge game Monday night at Salish Kootenai College.

The favorite Scarlets were overhauled by their county nemesis the Charlo Lady Vikings in a 46-24 semfinal loss in the Western 14-C District semifinals Friday night at Salish Kootenai College.

Arlee’s most decorated player, Alyssa Vanderberg, scored only a total of 14 points and saw limited playing time because of committing three fouls before the end of the first half in the heated battle with the Lady Vikings.

“Alyssa still did a fine job and ended up scoring 14 points in the limited time she was on the court,” Scarlets coach Bill Stockton said. “She did a fine job but she didn’t get to play much due to her foul trouble. The Lady Vikings were able to apply pressure the whole time and in the post were always torching our post players. There was always a Charlo defender to meet them. We had one body pressing on the other and it was difficult and tiring. We just don’t have multiple girls to be able to sub and do that.”

The victory over St. Regis ensured the Scarlets will play in the Divisional round on their path to a second consecutive Montana High School Association State bid. It will just be tougher with their first game in Divisionals facing unbeaten Superior-Alberton during Class C Divisionals Feb. 22-24 at Hamilton High School.

The Scarlets dominated Two Eagle in the first round and fired on all cylinders en route to a 40-0 halftime lead that culminated into a 65-3 victory in the first round of the Western 14-C Districts. Because of the domination, Arlee didn’t play their main rotations the same as they would have to against Charlo.

“Charlo defensively was really great and they made every shot difficult,” Stockton said. “They always had pressure and overall, the way they played defensively they were able to stop us from the way we are capable of playing.”

The Scarlets were able to recover from the loss to win critical loser bracket games that allowed them an opportunity if Charlo were to win in the District finals.

“It’s tough when you lose a game like that against Charlo but the best part about losing against Charlo was that it woke us up a little bit and made us realize that we had some work to do,” Stockton said. “We executed that night and Saturday morning against Noxon. We were able to get a pretty sizable lead early in the game. I feel like Hot Springs had a much tougher route in the loser’s bracket and they were just running out of gas when they played us in the consolation bracket.”

As the Scarlets prepare to head into Divisionals, they will have one thing going against any prospective opponent that is the bi-product of last year’s success. The Scarlets, who finished second in Class C in 2017, have a lot of big-game experience and that experience could pay dividends as they attempt to punch their second consecutive ticket to the MHSA State tournament.

Now that the Scarlets are on to play Alberton Clark-Fork, they will prepare for one of the toughest teams in Divisionals. They will have the opportunity to get them out of the way early in the hypothetical scenario if they win.

“We haven’t played them this year and I’ve watched them as an athletic basketball team,” Stockton said. “They rely on their pressure and use their defense to transition to offense. They play basketball at that high pace. They are 20-0 right now and they are going to be a good match up. Playing in Divisionals is going to be great because there are a lot of good teams out there and this gives our girls an opportunity to compete with those teams.”

Playing a team the quality of Clark Fork in the first round will allow the Scarlets to maintain their highest level of intensity as they attempt to move forward in the playoffs, according to Stockton.

“I think it’s huge and mentally, we know what it is like to play under pressure like this when we showed that on Saturday,” Stockton said. “We kept our composure and played in high pressure situations throughout the tournament. Now we will get our crack at Clark Fork and hopefully break their perfect record.”