Lady Heat, Lady Devils fall
By Mike Miller
Valley Press
After a lackluster 5-15 regular season, the Hot Springs girls turned things around at districts and came within one victory a divisional playoff birth.
After an opening round loss to Charlo, 33-5, Hot Springs rallied to a 48-21 victory over Noxon in the consolation game on Saturday to force a challenge game with Arlee on Monday night.
The contest was rather one sided, however, as the Scarlets doubled up the Lady Heat, 54-27, to advance to divisionals and eliminate Hot Springs form post-season contention.
Despite their pedestrian regular season, Hot Springs head coach Scott Wigton said a late season surge gave his girls the confidence to play well in the tournament. A victory over Arlee and a four-point loss to Noxon heading into the District 14-C Tournament gave his girls the confidence they needed to finish in third.
“We’ve been on the other side of it where we’ve been knocking people out of the tournament or putting them on the eight ball, but this season we had to have a little luck on our side,” Wigton said.
In their semifinal contest with Charlo on Friday, the Vikings held Hot Springs to just two field goals on their way to the blowout win.
Kinley Pope led Charlo with 13 points in the win.
Alyssa Foster scored three points and Hannah Retalick two in the loss.
Noxon opened its tournament with a 36-62 loss against Arlee on Friday. The second seeded Lady Devils would lose more than just a game, however, as Kim Marich and Acacia Eaton suffered ankle sprains which would hamper them for the rest of the tournament.
At full strength, the Lady Devils had seven players on their roster. Subtract key starter Cara Stettler, who broke her ankle in a late regular season game, and factor in Friday’s injuries and Noxon became a team with seemingly little left to play for and only four healthy girls left to play.
Heading into Saturday’s game, Noxon head coach Ron Jungert contemplated a forfeit. He felt that playing in such a lopsided game would only needlessly risk his player’s health.
Eaton and Marich, however, refused to sit out. They begged, pleaded and eventually convinced Jungert that this Noxon team would end the season the way they began on, on the court together.
The Lady Heat, on the other hand, entered their matchup against Noxon with high hopes, knowing that if they did their part and Charlo could top Arlee, they would live to fight another day.
Hustle paid off as Hot Springs outrebounded the Lady Devils 28-17 on their way to the win.
That’s been our key all season to control the board, and we finally got it done and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Meghan Massingale scored 18 points off the bench to lead Hot Springs. Hannah Retalick added eight points, Alyssa Foster seven, Alex Green six and Lindsey Salmi, Erin Schmiedbauer, Nicole Beernsten and Gina Morigeau two each.
Marich paced the Red Devils with 10 points while Jordyn Wilkinson had seven points and five rebounds for Noxon.
In Monday’s challenge game, Arlee’s defensive pressure was too much for Hot Springs to handle. The Scarlets forced 16 turnovers, including eight steals on their way to advancing to Divisionals.
Although Hot Springs held an 8-7 advantage at the end of the first quarter, Arlee would win the scoring battle in each subsequent quarter, 15-5, 16-8 and 16-6 on their way to the win.
Mahalia Hendren posted a double-double, garnering 11 points and 11 rebounds for the Scarlets.
Massingale led Hot Springs with eight points. Foster and Retalick each scored six, Salmi three and Green and Schmiedbauer two points in the loss.