Lady Devils seek revenge after loss
The Noxon girls proved they were a force to be reckoned with this week, after defeating a pair of class B teams in Valley Christian, 40-39 on Thursday, and Troy, 42-27 on Friday. The nonconference wins helped the Lady Devils improve to 9-3 on the season.
Noxon head coach Ron Jungert attributes his team’s fire to a loss versus Charlo, which motivated his players and caused them to refocus on their goal of making it to state despite playing against a bigger school with a bigger team.
Against Valley Christian, Noxon had a narrow 20-19 lead at halftime, and a slim 31-28 lead after three quarters, but that proved to be enough as they held on in the fourth to defeat the District 6-B Eagles.
“We just went in there with a vendetta, really ticked off,” Jungert said. “We outrebounded them and we just played harder.”
Kim Marich’s led the charge for the Lady Devils with 16 points. Cara Stettler added eight points to go with her game-high 14 rebounds while Jordyn Wilkinson scored eight, Alana Detwiller six and Acacia Eaton two in the win.
The Eagles (5-8) were led by Hollyn Wittmier’s 17 points.
On Friday, the Lady Devils defeated the Trojans for the second time this season. They significantly widened their margin of victory the second time around however, after narrowing escaping with a 41-39 victory on Dec. 16.
The Trojans played the Lady Devils tight heading into halftime down only 15-17, before Noxon unloaded a 15-7 run in the third quarter as they pulled away for good, sealing the victory over District 7-B Troy.
Noxon’s defense held Troy to just four, seven and five points in the final three quarters on their way to the win.
Marich scored a game-high 16 points and snagged seven rebounds for the Lady Devils. Stettler added a double-double with 15 points and 18 rebounds while Jordyn Wilkinson scored seven to go with her fourteen rebounds. Shay Lloyd scored four points for Noxon.
The winless Trojans (0-12) were paced by Jackie Pepiot with eight points.
Next week, Noxon will travel to Thompson Falls on Thursday before heading to St. Regis on Friday.
Jungert was pleased with the chance to play a Class B school by facing the Ladyhawks on Thursday.
“It’s just another opportunity to go in there and play against someone that has a pool of talent and to battle them and test our abilities that will prepare us for state,” he said.
Jungert also predicted that the score against St. Regis would be very different from the 62-11 win his team earned earlier this season. He said he plans to play more of his reserves to build confidence in his bench players.