Trotters outlast Lady Hawks

Basketball season is done for both Sanders County girls teams, after losing two games at the Western B Divisional Tournament at Hamilton last week.

The Plains Trotters stayed in the fray the longest after defeating their age-old foes, the Thompson Falls Lady Hawks, 51-43 Friday. Neither team made it to the finals last year, although they didn't face each other in the 2007 divisionals.

In their final game of the season, Walt Hermiston's girls took a beating by the Eureka Lady Lions, who claimed a 50-34 triumph over the Trotters Saturday morning. With two of Trotters' starters - seniors Brittany Mount and Bethany Catalanello - fouling out in the fourth quarter, Heather Earhart, a 5-foot-5 sophomore, led the Plains team with 12 points. Earhart, Emma Ehret, a junior, and Alexis Kunzer, a sophomore, chalked up four fouls apiece.

Eureka pressed hard from the start, collecting eight points to the Trotters' two in the first quarter, with Ehret the only scorer for Plains. All of the Trotters' points in the second quarter were the result of free throws, said Hermiston, who's in his first year as the team's head coach. The second quarter ended with the Lady Lions ahead 31-7. Plains managed a dozen more points in the third to put the Trotters 21 points behind. In the fourth, despite a loss of two starters, Plains picked up 15 more points, while holding Eureka to 10, leaving Plains with an 8-16 win/loss record for the year.

On Friday, the Lady Hawks started out with an 8-7 lead over the Trotters in the first quarter. In the second, Thompson Falls collected 15 more points. Only Mount, a senior, put one in the basket in the second, ending the first half with the Hawks in the lead 23-9. But in the third, the Trotters fought back and scored 20 points. The Lady Hawks, however, hit their mark for nine points to put Plains only three points behind. The Trotters maintained their drive in the fourth, piling up another 22 points and holding Thompson Falls to 11.

Hermiston said that defeating the Lady Hawks was a tremendous boost for his team. “It was huge; it was like we won the state championship,” said Hermiston. The Trotters had lost t o the Lady Hawks 39-34 in January and 53-39 in February. The coach said that knocking the Lady Hawks out of the tournament “basically made our season.”

Senior Ashton Vulles led the Trotters with 18 points, 13 of which were done in the fourth quarter, said Hermiston. Vulles shot eight for 12 at the free throw line. Mount had 12 points against the Lady Hawks. Earhart had nine points, all done in the second half.

Despite beating the Trotters during the season, Thompson Falls head coach Jason Reimer said they didn't take the Plains team for granted. “They kind of took us by surprise,” said Reimer, who's at the Lady Hawk helm for his first year. “They got some momentum and put us on our heels and we never recovered.” He said the girls got a little rattled when the Trotters grabbed the lead and missed some easy baskets. Reimer said it was a disappointment to be eliminated from the divisional competition, but he's now looking toward next season. Although they lose four seniors this year - Callie Holleran, Jubi Anderson, Katie Petteys, and Nicole Hagedorn - Reimer said they'll have a good nucleus of players for next season.

Junior Katelyn Jedlicka led the Lady Hawks with 24 points - 18 that were outside the arc - against the Trotters. Rheanna Padden, also a junior, scored 12 points, including two 3-pointers.

In the Trotters' first game of the tournament, Earhart assembled 12 points, while Catalanello hit her mark for nine points, but that wasn't enough to keep the Florence Lady Falcons from handing the Plains team a 49-28 loss Thursday evening. Hermiston said the Lady Falcons were a tough group of players and his team got closer than was expected. “We were definitely the underdogs,” he said. “But we had the best first half all year against them. We just ran out of gas in the second half.”

Earhart drew first blood in the first 30 seconds of the game and by the end of the first quarter, the Falcons led by only one point. Earhart tied the game at the start of the second with a free throw. The score remained close until the final minute of the quarter and by halftime, Florence had the lead 19-12.

Catalanello started off the third with a basket, followed immediately by Earhart, but the Lady Falcons poured on the heat and spread the gap to a 15-point lead by the end of the quarter. In the fourth, Plains managed only five points, but Florence collected another 11 to end the game.

The Lady Hawks started out the tournament by facing the Powell County (Deer Lodge) Wardens, which kept the lead the entire game. At the end of the first quarter, the Wardens had a 17-4 lead. T-Falls' only baskets were done by Hagedorn and Padden.

Petteys started off the second quarter with one from under the basket. Deer Lodge came back with a 2-pointer, but Jedlicka scored, then stole the ball beneath the Wardens' basket and drove it down court for another bucket, followed by Petteys to put the Hawks seven behind. Deer Lodge had a 27-16 lead at halftime. By the start of the fourth quarter, the Wardens were up by 21 points. The closest the Lady Hawks came to squaring the score was six points, which they did three times. By buzzer time, the Wardens had the game 54-45.

The Lady Hawks finished the season with 11 wins and 11 losses.

Loyola went on to take first place in the tournament after defeating Deer Lodge 48-41. Both will compete at the state championships in Butte this week. Florence beat Eureka at Hamilton 48-44 for third and fourth.