Clark Fork girls basketball falls to Philipsburg, Charlo

A young Clark Fork Lady Mountain Cats team ran into a buzzsaw in the first two games of the week.

While they salvaged the week with a win over visiting Plains, the Lady Cats fell to Philipsburg’s Lady Prospectors, 69-35, and to Charlo, 44-19.

Against the Lady Prospectors, Clark Fork took a 17-12 lead at the end of the first quarter as their scrappy defense caught the unbeaten home team off guard. However, Philipsburg solved the Cats’ defense in the second quarter and took a 26-21 lead by halftime.

Lanie Crabb led Clark Fork with 10 points.

Thursday night the Lady Cats traveled to Lake County for a matchup with unbeaten Charlo.

It was not a pleasant trip for the Clark Fork girls, who would take out their pain on Plains two nights later at home (see story).

In Charlo, the senior dominated Lady Vikings bolted to a quick 17-2 first quarter lead and never looked back. By halftime the score stood 27-8 in favor of the host team, who got 15 and 14 points from the Fryberger girls, Carlee and Conner, respectively.

Clark Fork did manage to outscore the Lady Vikings 9-8 in the third quarter, but a 9-2 fourth quarter edge by Charlo erased any hopes of a comeback win by the Lady Cats.

Clark Fork junior Cassie Green scored seven points to lead the Lady Cats, while sophomore guard Isabella Pereira contributed six.

Charlo improved to 2-0 on the year while Clark Fork fell to 2-3.