St. Regis boys and girls bounce back
When you’ve fallen off a horse, they say, the best thing to do is get back in the saddle and ride.
That prescription worked just fine for the St. Regis boys and girls basketball teams Friday night after both lost hard fought games against the Plains Horsemen and Trotters.
For the boys, who lost for the first time Thursday, it was a night to get back on track in the Western Montana Class C basketball race and they did so in convincing fashion, hammering Two Eagle River 82-41 in St. Regis.
The Tigers got scoring contributions from five different players in the opening quarter against the Eagles from Pablo, led by seven points from 6-4 junior post Andrew Sanford. They also got nine points combined from brothers Adam and Caleb Ball as they roared to a 21-4 lead at the end of the opening quarter.
The rout-in-the-making continued in the second quarter with four points each from Caleb Ball, Sanford and senior Nicholas Day as they outscored the Eagles 19-13 to take a commanding 40-17 lead into the halftime intermission.
It was more of the same in the third quarter with Sanford and Day, who controlled the glass throughout the game, chipping in six points apiece to pad the game lead to 65-28 heading into the final quarter.
Sanford, who finished as the game’s leading scorer with 21 points, including a 5-for-6 night from the free throw line, scored just two more points in the last eight minutes as all eight players on the Tigers’ roster got into the scorebook.
Day added 17 points, while Caleb Ball and senior guard Ian Farris added 10 each to the Tigers’ cause. Sophomore Adam Ball, fresh off a wrist injury that kept him sidelined until this week, contributed eight points.
The win improved St. Regis’ season mark to a lofty 7-1. Next up for the Tigers is a road game against Hot Springs Thursday night, followed by a home game with Lincoln Friday night.
For the St. Regis girls, who have one senior, one junior and the rest sophomores and freshmen on their roster, the story was much the same.
They too fell to Plains Thursday, then took it out in a big way on the Eagles Friday night for their second win of the season.
The girls came out with a mini-barrage of 3-pointers on their way to a 59-16 thumping of Two Eagle River in the girls half of the home double-header.
Senior Kylee Thompson scored eight points on two long-range 3-pointers and a regular basket and freshman Macy Hill added seven points including a trey as the Lady Tigers exploded to a 21-2 first quarter lead.
The smothering St. Regis defense held the Lady Eagles to just one two-point bucket in that opening frame.
Sunny Shoupe, a 5-10 sophomore post, got her shot going in the second quarter, sinking three two-pointers and helping control the boards at both ends of the court. The Lady Tigers held a 33-10 lead by halftime.
Defense and hustle offense continued to be the theme in the third quarter. Rylie Burnham tallied five points, one on a long-range for 3, and Hill and Taylor Hurd chipped in four each as St Regis put the game way out of reach at 50-14 by the end of the quarter.
The St. Regis defense continued to throttle Two Eagle River over the last eight minutes, holding the Lady Eagles to just two points on their way to the win.
Burnham, Shoupe and Thompson each scored 13 points to tie for game-high scoring honors.
The win improved the young Tigers season mark to 2-6. As with the boys, the girls will face powerful Hot Springs Thursday on the road, then play Lincoln in St. Regis Friday night.