Mission Valley All-Stars rock the court; Light overshadows Dark

At the Ronan Events Center this past Thursday, area basketball players put an exclamation point on their hoops season with a pair of evenly matched Mission Valley All-Star Games.

In the girls’ matchup, Light may have prevailed during the first half, but the Dark team overtook them 44-42 when Charlo’s Teaira Truman dialed the operator long distance from beyond the arc and completed the call for a triple. The contest saw several ties — later on at 51 apiece after the front end of a free throw set by Ronan’s Tiana Ulutoa, and again at 62 apiece on the back end of some charity stripe work by Mission’s Azia Umphrey. A subsequent deuce by Ronan’s Jaylea Lunceford would give the Dark squad the lead late in the game at 64-62. Mission’s Karolyna Buck would cut the deficit to one with the front end of her set of free throw attempts, 64-63. But the Light squad would flip the script for the win on a Bigfork Valkyrie Ansleigh Edgerton putback with 11.4 seconds remaining, 65-64.

In terms of individual accomplishments, Karly Lawson of Polson, a former Hot Springs transfer, would close out her prep career by reaching the summit of the half millennial (500) point plateau for varsity career scoring at the 16:30 juncture of the second half when the score was 42-39. She would add a bit of insurance with the back end of a pair of free throws.

IN THE boys’ all-star skirmish, the Dark squad led at the half and looked like they might put some distance on the Light team. But the game would tie at 63 apiece after Mission’s Wacey McClure netted a deuce for the Light, followed by overtaking the lead 65-63 after Arlee’s 6-foot-9 Isaac Fisher found net. Thereafter, it would be catch me if you can, the sole difference in the closing minutes being which side was able to coax their shot attempts to hop down the rabbit hole.

In terms of individual accomplishments, Fisher would lead all scorers with a double-double of 23 points along with high- teen rebounding. Landers Smith would surpass the varsity career millennial (1,000) mark as he netted more than the quintet that were needed to cross that threshold.

Game MVPs for the boys were Jacob Hugs for the Dark and Isaac Fisher for the Light, while MVP recipients for the girls were Edgerton for the Light and Umphrey for the Dark.

Three-point shootout winners were Buck with seven for the girls and Bubba Bush with nine for the boys. The 3-point segment of the all-star game hereafter will be dedicated to the memory of the late Les Rice, who was an integral component behind not only the all-star games, but Mission Valley basketball as a whole.

24th Annual Mission Valley All-Star GameS

Les Rice Memorial 3-Point Shootout

MV All-Star Girls

Light 65, Dark 64,

Light 38 27 – 65

Dark 30 34 – 64

LIGHT – Ansleigh Edgerton 7 2-4 18(3r,2s), Tiana Ulutoa 4 4-7 12(3r,1a,1s), Karolyna Buck 3 2-4 9(2s), Kaitlin Cox 2 0-0 6(5r,1a,1s), Katelyn Christensen 2 1-2 6(5r,2a,2s), Natalee Deschamps 2 0-0 4, McKenzie Cannon 1 1-4 3(3r,1b), Allie Delaney 2(3r), Addison Arlint 2(3r,1a), Noelle West 2(2s), Olivia Perez 0 1-2 1(3r,1a).

DARK – Azia Umphrey 8 2-3 18(3r,1s), Jaylea Lunceford 5 2-2 12(4r), Nellie Desjarlais 2 2-2 7(3r), Sydney Jackson 3 0-0 6, Karly Lawson 2 2-6 6(4r,1s), Teaira Truman 2 0-0 5(4r), Kassidy Kinzie 1 1-2 4, Emily Fiddler 2, Rakiah Grende 2, Rachel Huenink 2(3r), Sydney Brander 0(1a,1s).

3FGs – Light (Cox 2, Buck, Christensen, Edgerton), Dark (Umphrey 2, Truman, Kinzie, Desjarlais). (Th21Mar2019gm1)

girls expanded stat specs not comprehensive due to late arrival after tipoff. NOTE: some Jackson/Kinzie conflation of stat specs (4r,1a,1s) may have been blended/blurred on account of similarities in jersey color and number.

MV All-Star Boys

Light 94, Dark 86

Light 47 47 – 94

Dark 54 32 – 86

LIGHT – Isaac Fisher 10 2-2 23(19r,2s,3b), Wacey McClure 7 0-0 17(4r,2a,3s,1b), Treydon Brouillette 4 1-4 10(4r,1a,2s), Matt McCracken 4 0-1 10(5r), Flint McPherson 3 1-1 7(5r,1a,2s), Brandon Knudsen 3 0-0 7(3r,2a,1s), Micah Askan 3 0-0 6(4r,2a,1b), Randy Finley 2 0-0 5(10r,2a,1s), Connor Koenig 2 0-0 5(5r), Tyler Carr 1 2-2 4(1r,1a).

DARK – Travis Pierre 4 1-2 13(2r), Landers Smith 5 0-0 12(11r,2a,2s), Jedi Christy 5 0-0 12(3r,1,1s), Jacob Hugs 5 0-2 12(2r,2a,2s,1b), Derrick Curry 4 0-0 9(6r), Tyler Knudsen 3 1-3 8(5r), Lane Johnson 3 0-0 7(6r,2a,4s,1b), Cody Tanner 3 0-1 6(4r,3a,3s), Bubba Bush 3(3r,2a,1s), Garett Vaughan 2(1a,1s), Robin Erickson 1 0-2 2(4r,1a).

3FGs – Light (McClure 3, McCracken 2, Brouillette, Fisher, Koenig, Finley, B.Knudsen), Dark (Pierre 4, Smith 2, Christy 2, Hugs 2, Curry, T.Knudsen, Johnson, Bush). (Th21Mar2019gm2)

Les Rice Memorial 3-Point Shootout

MVAS Girls – Karolyna Buck 7, Karly Lawson 6, Azia Umphrey 6, Natalee Deschamps 6, Olivia Perez 6, Kaitlin Cox 5, Jaylea Lunceford 5, Addison Arlint 5, Katelyn Christensen 4, Kassidy Kinzie 3, Sydney Jackson 2, Tiana Ulutoa 2, Sydney Brander 1

MVAS Boys – Bubba Bush 9, Micah Askan 8, Jedi Christy 6, Jacob Hugs 5, Matt McCracken 5, Connor Koenig 5, Flint McPherson 5, Brandon Knudsen 5, Garett Vaughan 4, Tyler Carr 3, Tyler Knudsen 3, Wacey McClure 2.

MVPs – Ansleigh Edgerson, Azia Umphrey; Jacob Hugs, Isaac Fisher.

PLAYER SCHOOL AFFILIATIONS – Charlo (Kaitlin Cox, Allie Delaney, Teaira Truman; Landers Smith, Connor Koenig, Garett Vaughan), Arlee (Nellie Desjarlais, Emily Fiddler, Noelle West; Isaac Fisher, Lane Johnson, Cody Tanner), Two Eagle River (Travis Pierre), Mission St. Ignatius (Karolyna Buck, Azia Umphrey, Sydney Brander, Addison Arlint; Wacey McClure, Jedi Christy, Flint McPherson, Jacob Hugs), Ronan (Tiana Ulutoa, Jaylea Lunceford; Randy Finley, Bubba Bush), Polson (Karly Lawson, Olivia Perez; Robin Erickson, Micah Askan), Bigfork (Ansleigh Edgerton, Rakiah Grende), Hot Springs (Sydney Jackson, McKennzie Cannon, Katelyn Christensen; Brandon Knudsen, Tyler Knudsen, Tyler Carr), Plains (Kassidy Kinzie, Rachel Huenink, Natalee Deschamps; Derrick Curry, Matt McCracken, Treydon Brouillette).