Hot Springs rises above Charlo late for win

Danielle Switalski

After an easy win against St. Regis on Friday night, the Lady Heat went on to defeat Charlo in a close game on Saturday.

Hot Springs beat St. Regis 51-22 on Friday night and made sure their rotation was in order by getting the bench players involved as much as possible so everyone could conserve their energy for the tough game against Charlo the following day.

“We won pretty handily, their low on numbers and over the course of the game our depth hurt them and we played pretty well,” said Head Coach Scott Wigton about the St. Regis win.

Hot Springs had a lot at stake when they faced Charlo at home Saturday night as they needed a win in order to try and secure their number one seat when going into tournament play.  Hot Springs beat Charlo 42-34, not once giving up their lead throughout the game, which Wigton said is crucial when playing Charlo because when they get ahead they tend to stay ahead.

“The key behind beating Charlo is to not get behind, if you’re down three in reality it feels like ten, because they will suck the life out of you and not let you have the ball back and that’s just how they operate and control every possession,” said Wigton who said since Hot Springs maintained their lead, it forced Charlo to change their tactics.

Hot Springs started the game strong, coming out tough defensively and beating Charlo’s high pressure man to man defense.  Hot Springs had a strong lead early on in the game, with the score 17-10 at half time.  Wigton said he was impressed with the girls’ defensive effort as Charlo is known to hit their outside shots and keeping them to ten points in the first half of the game showed Hot Springs tough defense.  Wigton did his best to keep Charlo on their toes offensively as he would switch up from their core two-three zone defense to man-to-man periodically throughout the game. 

“Late in the game, we made some mental mistakes, but when you play a team like Charlo that requires attention mentally every time down the floor it will wear on you and you have to be ready for anything they throw at you,” said Wigton commenting on his girls’ fouls they committed late in the game, stopping the clock and sending good Charlo shooters to the line.  The Lady Heat made their free throws Saturday night, which helped them win the game.

Hot Springs had 16 offensive rebounds against Charlo, which Wigton said he was highly impressed by because Charlo is such a tough defensive team.  Randi Arnold went home with another double double, having 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Hot Springs only has four regular season games left before they head to the Divisonal tournament and is set to take on Arlee at home on Thursday night and Alberton on the road Saturday.  Wigton is happy about the coming games as Arlee plays a slower tempo game and Alberton is a more fast-paced team.

“I like to play contrasting styles to see how we do against a quick team and then a slow, deliberate team,” said Wigton.  “Hopefully they are playing their best basketball and us as well.  We want them to do their best to prepare us for Districts and we don’t want to play teams that aren’t going to help us.  It’s good these teams are coming up because they are quality.”

Wigton said the team is full steam ahead from here and they are not going to overlook any team, but take one game at a time.