Hard times hit Tigers this week

It was a tough week for the St. Regis boys. They had a hard game against Charlo early in the week and then struggled against Victor on Saturday.

Things started out rough going into the Charlo game. Coach Dan Park said that two of his starters were missing because of eligibility requirements.

“I was down to nine players going into that game,” he said.

Charlo had a huge first quarter and didn’t give the Tigers a chance to rebound. The Tigers ended up losing 30-69. Park said that he feels they learned a lot from Charlo and saw a lot of how they would like to play in the team.

“They play like we’ve been teaching our kids to play,” Park said. “They get open and work hard. They know what kind of passes to make.”

The Tigers had a lot of turnovers again against Charlo and Park pointed out that they still weren’t running their offense well.

“Defensively, I think we played better than we have, but they’re still not quite getting to where they need to be quick enough,” Park said. “The score wasn’t good, but I did see improvement.”

Thomas Spencer was the leading scorer for the Panther with 15 points. Jarrod Tippens added nine and Spur Hill shot three. Shad Rich added two and Keenan Ewalt added one.

Park said that it wasn’t a pretty game against Victor on Saturday when the Panthers lost again.

“We had turnovers right off the bat and we couldn’t bring the ball down the floor,” Park said. “We were hurting.”

Parks also said that the game didn’t go too well for them on the defensive end either.

“It always seems like the other team shoots real well against us,” Park said. “We try to plug the inside and they shoot from the outside.”

Park said that throughout the week he noticed that the younger players, who got quite a bit of playing time last week, are coming along. He noted that Ewalt is “really coming along.”

He also singled out Brit Ramsey, another freshman, saying that he did pretty well throughout the week.

“He did pretty well for a freshman who got thrown in there with the pressure,” Park said.

Park said that with no school on Friday of last week and no school on Monday of this week, he’s not quite sure who he is going to have for the games this week. The team played Clark Fork for a second time on Tuesday and will play Alberton again on Thursday. They lost to Alberton by four the last time they played the Panthers.

“It was a good game and I expect it to be again,” Park said. “We’re starting our second half and I don’t know what I’ll have this week, but we’ll try hard.”

On the girls’ side of things, the Lady Tigers also saw two losses last week. They fell to Charlo 44-9. Against Darby later in the week, they played against the team pretty evenly in the first two quarters, 7-7 and 12-15. In the second half of the game, the Lady Tigers couldn’t keep up with Darby’s pace and ended up losing 33-58.

This week, they’ll also battle Clark Fork and try their luck against county rival Alberton, who they also lost to earlier in the season.