Noxon hopes to end Hot Springs/Charlo dominance
Matt Unrau
After playing two conference games this weekend and an unofficial conference game against Hot Springs in the championship game of the Coffey Cup, it’s pretty obvious who the Noxon Lady Red Devils have to beat in conference this year. It’s Hot Springs and Charlo.
“They’ve never beat Charlo ever and they’ve never beaten Hot Springs,” says Head basketball Coach Sarah Hannum. “But that’s something we can do this year.”
Despite dropping a tough game to Charlo at home on Saturday, Noxon led by four points at halftime and scored a moral victory by only losing by nine points, 37-28. Last year the Lady Red Devils lost to the same Charlo squad by over 40 points.
It was a defensive affair on Friday night where offensive flavor was hard to come by and it was ultimately a second half swoon that kept Noxon from gaining that elusive victory against Charlo.
“The girls had played such hard defense that they just ran out of gas,” says Hannum. “They have a lot of passion and its just putting together four quarters.”
It was similar letdown in the second half that doomed Noxon in the championship game of the Coffey Cup tournament as they allowed Hot Springs to put together a huge run outscoring Noxon by 16 points.
In the Saturday night game Charlo outscored the Lady Red Devils by 13 points. Although Hannum attributes some of that to conditioning she is looking for more leadership and confidence for the team, so that they can weather opponent’s runs in the second half.
Rachael Stettler led Noxon with 10 points and 6 rebounds and Senior Stephanie Larkin hauled in double digit rebounds with 11.
In another home game on Friday night, the Lady Red Devils proved that they are one of the top teams in conference with a 63-44 dismantling of Two Eagle River.
It was a star-worthy performance by Sophomore Cara Stettler who nearly garnered a triple double for the game finishing with 23 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals. It would have been her second triple double in her still short highschool career.
The Lady Red Devils poured in 40 points in the first half, doubling up Two Eagle River 40-20 and cruised in the second half for the win.
“We scored 22 of those points in the second quarter, we just got a really good jump on them,” says Hannum. Also since Two Eagle River did not have a JV team, Hannum was able to play a lot of her bench players without having to worry about the maximum of six quarters played rule. Hannum says it was beneficial to her team, because they have a short number of girls on the team. Against Charlo they had a JV game.
Other stat leaders for the game included Larkin who had 13 points and 8 rebounds and Rachael Stettler who had 11 points.
The Saturday game is the last game for Noxon until after the Holiday break, and leaves Noxon at 1-1 in conference and feeling pretty good about their chances this year.
“I feel like we’re really competitive. I really think we’re gonna be sitting pretty good,” says Hannum. “I think we have a really good chance to give Charlo a run for their money.”