Lady Devils win three in a row

Christmas break couldn’t have come at a better time for Noxon, as the Lady Devils rebounded from a loss to rattle off three consecutive wins giving them an impressive 1-1 conf., 5-2 ovr. start to a season in which little was expected of them outside their own locker room.

“What separates us [from other teams] is our will,” Noxon’s first year head coach Ron Jungert said. “We play with heart. There are a lot of better shooting teams than us, or what have you, but it’s a matter of willing the victory.”

“We’re focused on state and we’re going to take some losses,” Jungert said. “Our whole focus is making it to districts, so if we take a loss it’s not going to crush us, it’s just part of that building process. A couple losses here would be a good thing. We’ve just got to learn from them.”

On Thursday the District 14-C Lady Devils willed themselves into the win column with a 51-32 victory over a District 7-B St. Ignatius team who entered the contest with an impressive 5-1 record.

Junior point guard Kim Marich had a colossal 30 points and 13 rebounds to lead Noxon. Marich was 8-of-8 from the field in the first half, and had 27 points heading into the fourth quarter. 

Cara Stettler contributed the first of her three-straight double doubles, scoring 13 and snagging 14 rebounds, while Jordyn Wilkinson scored six while rebounding the same amount in the victory.

In the loss, Stephanie Lewandowski posted a team-high eight points for St. Ignatius.

If a 19-point victory is a perfect 10, in terms of performance, then a 51-point blow-out must be an 11.

Versus St. Regis on Friday, Noxon would earn all 11 style-points on its way to knocking off the winless Lady Tigers, 62-11.

The talented junior trio led Noxon again, this time with Stettler out in front, scoring 24 points and grabbing 15 rebounds. Marich tallied 21 points, 11 rebounds and six steals while Wilkinson knocked down 15 points and 12 rebounds.

Although Jungert is proud of the way his team has played, he feels the development of his supporting players will be crucial to the Lady Devil’s success late in the season and saw Friday’s contest as an opportunity to develop confidence in them.

“It was good for Shay (Lloyd), Shelby (Clark) and Alana (Dettwiler) because we need more from them and they realize that,” Jungert said.

Juliana Spencer scored six points to lead St. Regis (0-3, 0-5).

It was more of the same on Saturday as Noxon traveled more than three hours to face Victor, defeating them 45-29 for their third victory in as many days.

“In the first two quarters Victor just came at us. They had a lot of energy and pep in their step,” Jungert said. “My girls were tired. They went out there a little flat.”

Regardless of the circumstance, the Lady Devils battled to their way to a 10-point lead at halftime, and hung on in the second half to come out on top.

Stettler tallied game highs in both points and rebounds with 21 and 24 respectively, while Marich came away with 15 points and eight rebounds and Wilkinson posted six points to go with eight rebounds.

Individual stats were not available for Victor.

As the Lady Devils head into the heart of their conference schedule, they’re eager for sophomore Acacia Eaton to return this week, after missing the last three contests. Eaton is averaging 11.5 rebounds per game.

Noxon will go right back at it with two league games this week. First, visiting Hot Springs on Friday, and then Hosting Charlo on Saturday.

Although Jungert knows this will be a crucial week for his team, he admits that he’s much more concerned with the play of his Lady Devils than whoever they are matched up against.

“I guess my philosophy is that I don’t necessarily worry too much about what they can do or what they’re doing,” he said. “I worry about what we do and how we do it, and making them focus on us.”