Seeley-Swan tops Lady Mountain Cats for 13C crown
The top two seeds proved to be accurate in the Montana Girls 13C basketball tournament held this past weekend in Frenchtown.
Top-seeded Seeley-Swan lived up to its No. 1 listing by beating the Clark Fork Lady Mountain Cats 59-38 in the championship game.
Both teams advanced to this weekend’s divisional playoffs, also in Frenchtown by virtue of their first- and second-place finishes.
In besting the Mountain Cats, the Lady Blackhawks used a stingy, swarming defense to grab a 13-3 lead after the first quarter, then built that lead to 30-14 by the end of the opening half.
Klaire Kovatch, Seeley’s junior center, was a defensive and rebounding force against the Lady Cats throughout the night, blocking several shots and grabbing numerous offensive and defensive rebounds to go with her nine points.
Teammate Kyla Conley, meanwhile, spearheaded the Lady Blackhawks’ offense with a team-high 16 points.
Clark Fork kept battling in the second half but were unable to overcome the big halftime deficit. The Lady Mountain Cats’ freshman guard Darby Haskins led all scorers with 19 points, many of them coming from beyond the 3-point arc.
The Lady Cats, a combination of players from Superior and Alberton, opened the tournament with a hard-fought 52-45 win over Darby to advance to the championship game.
Seeley-Swan, meanwhile cruised to an easy victory over Valley Christian of Missoula to set up the finals match with Clark Fork.
Darby and Valley Christian had battled back through the consolation bracket where Darby won the consolation final by a lopsided 48-19 score over Valley Christian.
Because Darby had already played and lost to Clark Fork, they were not allowed to force a challenge for the second seed which is instituted under Montana high school rules if the consolation winner has not already played the second place team.
Clark Fork coach Jeff Schultz said despite the loss to Seeley he was happy with the chance to advance with his young team.
“I’m really proud of these girls,” Schultz said afterward. “They fought hard to the end. It’s good to make the next level of playoffs!”