Valkyries drop Maidens in opener
Their coach said they had a small case of the jitters.
But the Bigfork Valkyries looked anything but antsy Thursday as they rolled to a 58-32 first round win over the Ronan Maidens at the Northwestern A divisional girls basketball tournament.
In the first quarter alone, the Vals forced 10 first-quarter turnovers, outrebounded the Maidens 12-6 and ran up a 14-2 lead.
The Vals (13-6 overall) led 25-11 at the half and 46-21 after three quarters.
Mallery Knoll led the offensive effort in the early going with eight of Bigfork's first 10 points.
With 14 points for the night, Knoll was one of three Vals to finish the night in double figures. Quinci Paine added 10 points and Roxy Thurman 14. Kailey Fierro was right behind those three with nine points.
"It was nice to come out and get some pressure on them and get a nice start there and get a lot of kids some playing time," said Bigfork coach Mark Hansen.
"We've got a lot of sick girls, so it was nice to get them some rest along the way," he said.
With the win, Bigfork advances to tonight's 8 p.m. semifinal against No. 2 seed Libby (13-5, 8-2).
"Mallery came out and got us going a little bit offensively, Roxy always sets the tone with her defense and I just thought progressively the team - once they got their legs under them - everybody contributed.
"But Roxy is our catalyst in getting everything going. Even if she's not scoring, she's making the pass or getting the break going and or getting the rebound," Hansen said.
But the biggest key was the press and Bigfork worked it to perfection. Unofficially, Ronan had 32 turnovers.
"We've got a lot of quickness up there and we've given (the Maidens' problems in the past with (the press), so we stuck with it," Hansen said.
"We missed a lot of layups, but I think our girls, that first game of the tournament, we're a little nervous and jittery, too," he said.
"Our guards struggled with ball movement today," said Ronan coach Jami Schall.
"I thought having five seniors being ready to come out and play … but we came out with the jitters and we never really recovered from them," Schall said.
"We switched up some defenses, tried different defenses, but we just couldn't get anything rolling on offense. My girls need confidence on the offensive end to encourage them on the defensive end," she said.
"We kind of got ourselves in a hole in that deal and we need to learn to work through it," she said.
The good news for Ronan is that it did get playing time for some younger girls.
One of those younger girls - freshman Morgan Belgarde - led the Maidens with 17 points.
"Morgan did well offensively for us. She started taking the ball as soon as we started finding her," she said.
"I would have liked to come out with a win, but things didn't go our way and we're looking forward to playing the loser of Whitefish and Columbia Falls (at 10:45 a.m. Saturday at Glacier).
The Vals are looking forward to taking on the Loggers.
"We haven't played very well against them. I give them credit. They've done some things defensively that we've not combatted," Hansen said.
"We need to compete with them on the board. They're very well-coached and their kids do a great job.
"They're patient. We're not. We like to get out and run. We like the big court.
"They're going to try to get us into their mode and we're going to try to get them into our mode," Hansen smiled.
Ronan 2 9 10 11 - 32
Bigfork 14 11 21 12 - 58
Ronan - Ashlee Cheff 1 0-0 2, Kaylee Larson 0 1-4 1, Carli Starkel 1 0-0 3, Alice VanGunten 1 0-0 2, Morgan Belgarde 5 7-8 17, Ashley Gundelamp 1 0-0 3, Tylyn Lefthand 1 0-0 2, Taylor Irvine 0 2-2 2. Totals 10 10-14 32.
Bigfork - Mallery Knoll 6 2-5 14, McKinze Shultz 0 2-2 2, Quinci Paine 3 4-4 10, Quindee Averill 0 1-2 1, Lila Cenis 1 0-0 2, Taylor Peck 0 4-4 4, Roxy Thurman 5 4-5 14, Caitlin Charlebois 1 0-2 2, Kailey Fierro 4 1-1 9.
3-point goals: Ronan 2 (Starkel, Grundelamp), Bigfork 0. Total fouls: Ronan 18, Bigfork 13 fouls. Fouled out: None.