GIRLS BASKETBALL: Bigfork streaks by Libby
<p>Bigfork's Lana Berg shoots over Libby's Shannon Reny during the Valkyrie's 57-36 victory at home on Friday. (Aaric Bryan/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
BIGFORK — Swarming on defense, the Bigfork girls put together a 17-2 run over six minutes in the first half to pull away from visiting Libby in a 57-36 District 7B basketball win on Friday evening.
The teams stood toe-to-toe for the first five minutes of the game, Bigfork jumping out to a 6-2 lead only for Libby to hold the Valkyries scoreless for nearly three minutes as it tied the game with a pair of buckets from junior post Abby Ennenga.
After a timeout with three minutes to play in the first quarter, Bigfork pushed its zone defense out to the half-court line, harassing the Loggers into a series of turnovers. The Vals quickly took advantage, hitting a 3-pointer and a pair of layups to counter the work by Ennenga inside and take a 14-8 lead after eight minutes.
Bigfork scored the first seven points of the second quarter as well, capped by a 3-pointer from Mattison McAnally, her second in the 17-2 run, to pull out to a 23-8 lead.
The Vals locked down to close the quarter, scoring six straight to stretch their lead to 31-13 with a minute to play. Bigfork led 31-15 at half.
“We pushed up a little further than we usually do,” Vals coach Jami Grende said.
“We have some really good defenders that play the top part of our 1-3-1 (zone defense). They’re our key players and there was a lot of hustle by our whole team.”
Libby settled down in the second half, and cut the lead to 11 by the midway point of the third quarter, but saw the Vals again close the quarter strong, scoring seven straight points to extend its lead to 19 points.
The Loggers never got much closer, putting together a small run in the fourth quarter, but scored just once in the final six minutes, on a layup from Ennenga with 15 seconds to play.
“We had good runs and good spurts against the best team in our conference,” Libby coach Jim May said.
“We proved different parts of the game that we can play with them. We just have to eliminate the lapses when we don’t.”
Bigfork outrebounded Libby 30-23, including 11 offensive rebounds, the Vals scoring 11 points directly off second chances.
Lana Berg had a game-high 17 points to lead the Vals, who also got 12 points and eight rebounds from McAnally and 10 points and eight rebounds from Miranda Campbell.
Ennenga scored 14 points for the Loggers and Shannon Reny had 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Bigfork hosts Eureka today while Libby entertains Thompson Falls.
Libby 8 7 15 6 — 36
Bigfork 14 17 18 8 — 57
LIBBY—Trinity Walace 4, Madison Monigold 4, Abby Ennenga 14, Shannon Reny 14.
BIGFORK—Haile Norred 7, Jaime Berg 4, Mattie McAnally 12, Katie Thomas 7, Lana Berg 17, Miranda Campbell 10.