For Valkyries, third became their first

The Bigfork Valkyries were intent on making history this basketball season, and they did — just not in the manner they expected.

That’s because a 22-1 start to the season became 22-2 with a first-round loss to Boulder at the State B girls basketball tournament.

The 61-55 setback put Bigfork in what is familiar territory for those that follow the program: The Vals made six state tournament appearances from 2010 to 2020 and went oh-and-2 in all but one.

Getting to state is an accomplishment; going 1-12 there is less so.

“We knew going in that no Bigfork girls team had ever won a state title,” Emma Berreth, the Vals’ senior point guard, said. “After our first game our principal (Mark Hansen) went and did a lot of research.”

It turned out no Valkyries team had so much as “trophied,” or placed in the top three. They still had a goal.

Wins over Columbus, Harlem and Glasgow followed, and Bigfork took third while giving big minutes to two juniors (Madison Chappuis and Scout Nadeau), a sophomore (Callie Gembala) and two freshmen (Ava Davey and Braeden Gunlock).

And, of course, Berreth, who a year ago worked through extra defensive attention and averaged over 18 points a game. The Vikings went 10-11. This season the Vals were 10-0 on Jan. 14.

“We had two super awesome freshmen, in Ava Davey and Braeden Gunlock,” Berreth said. “They were amazing additions, and it created two more scorers. It eliminated the box and one, triangle and 2. Because any night any one of us could go off for 20 points.”

Davey hit for 15 three times and averaged 8.4 points on the season. Berreth ended up at 15.5, tapering off from the 17.4 points she averaged through 10 games.

And Gunlock — all the 5-foot-11 forward did was score 18.6 points from mid-January on, raising her average to 17.3. Berreth, who also played extensively as a freshman, crossed the 1,000 career points milestone in December; Gunlock, daughter of head coach Cortnee Gunlock, piled up 466 points this season alone.

Berreth could have more points. Her career, for all her success, has been a little star-crossed. She missed two games last year with a slash on her knee. A picnic up to Eagle Bend Lookout — she and a companion were honoring a close friend who’d passed away — on Feb. 18, 2021, ended in spills for both parties.

“She fell down the entire hill and didn’t have a mark on her,” Berreth said. “I fell down once — six stitches.”

This season she suffered a concussion due to a flagrant foul in Florence, and missed two more games. Bigfork lost one of them to Mission, and then the Vals ran off their second 11-game winning streak of the season. Then came the Boulder loss.

“We had a lot of girls where it was their first time playing at state — just a lot of nerves, I think,” said Berreth. “That’s a big stage to play on.

“We just came together as a team Thursday night and decided we didn ‘t want to be another 0-2 team at state.”

Bigfork finished 25-2, not far off the 29-5 mark Rocky Mountain College compiled this season — a program that Berreth is interested in joining.

Why not? The Battlin’ Bears made it to the quarterfinals of the NAIA Women’s Tournament, a historic run. Berreth knows something about that.

“One of our goals was to end our season on a win,” she said. “Only two teams get to do that. Not many people can say they did that.

“It was bittersweet, because I realized it was my last time playing with my best friends. And 25-1 would have been a lot sweeter, but that wasn’t the case. Third was going to become our first. We had to find a new goal to hold onto.”

Sports writer Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463 or fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com.