Scarlets stymie St. Regis to stop skid
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LINCOLN — With a relentless style of defense, the Scarlets’ success can be measured by how much they get under their opponent’s skin —consider Friday night a success.
The Scarlets stopped a five-game losing streak by completely frustrating the St. Regis Tigers, limiting their scoring to only two players and only allowing five field goals in a 35-21 District 14-C victory in Arlee.
“We play better when we’re aggressive. The aggressiveness just comes out in them, ” Arlee coach Richard Bachmeier said. “How aggressive we are is the biggest factor in if we win or not. If we get after it and start pressing and playing man-to-man, it speeds the game up and the girls play better.”
The Scarlets’ defense held Lady Tiger leading-scorer Heather Pruitt to only 12 points, eight of which came at the foul line. In their first meeting of the season, a 49-36 Arlee victory in St. Regis, Pruitt scored 22 points. Brianna Managhan’s nine points accounted for the rest of the Lady Tigers’ scoring.
The Scarlets started the game on a 7-0 run and went into the second quarter with a 9-5 lead. After a layup by Managhan to open the quarter, the Scarlets put the game away by holding the Lady Tigers scoreless the rest of the quarter to go into the break with a 17-7 lead. After Managhan’s basket on the opening possession of the second quarter, St. Regis didn’t score again until the 5:18 mark of the third quarter and that was on free throws because of a technical foul.
The close to 10-minute scoring drought, was just one stretch of what Bachmeier called a “tremendous effort,” from his defense.
The Scarlets were led by freshman Kristyn Adams, who finished with 11 points, with most of them coming from right underneath the basket.
“We were concentrating on pounding the ball inside and getting Kristyn and Mahalia going,” Bachmeier said. Mahalia Hendren finished with five points.
Melissa Ivanoff hit both of the Scarlets’ 3-pointers in the game and finished with nine points. The junior’s first trey capped the Scarlets’ 7-0 run to start the game and her second long ball gave Arlee a 25-12 lead with less than four minutes to play in the third quarter.
Tayla Dejarlais and Chelsea Allaire each finished with four points for the Scarlets.
The Scarlets used a balanced-attack and a hot start against the Lady Lynx the following night in Lincoln to pick up their second win in as many tries. The Scarlets jumped out to a 15-4 first-quarter lead and had five players finish with at least eight points in a 46-29 nonconference win.
“We had a good balance of scoring. That’s what we’ve been looking for,” Bachmeier said.
Dejarlais led the Scarlets with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field. Ivanoff and Hendren chipped in with nine points and both Adams and Allaire added eight points.
“We got a few turnovers on them and we hit some outside shots in the first quarter to loosen up the middle,” is how Bachmeier explained the 15-4 Arlee run to start the game.
After only turning the ball over 15 times against St. Regis, the Scarlets only turned the ball over 14 times against Lincoln. During the five-game losing streak, they would turn the ball over as many as 30 times. Cutting down on turnovers is one of the reason for the turnaround, and so is their bench play. Bachmeier said that the bench is starting to come around and allowing him to rest his starters.
All the Scarlets (6-7, 3-3) will get some rest. After playing Two Eagle River Tuesday, the Scarlets don’t play until Feb. 4, when they travel to Hot Springs.
Summary
Arlee 35, St. Regis 21
St. Regis 5 2 6 8–21
Arlee 9 8 10 8–35
ST. REGIS - Brianna Managhan 9, Heather Pruitt 12.
ARLEE - Tayla Dejarlais 4, Chelsea Allaire 4, Melissa Ivanoff 9, Mahalia Hendren 5, Kristyn Adams 11, Karleigh Bolin 2.
Arlee 46, Lincoln 29
Arlee 15 9 6 16–46
Lincoln 4 6 7 12–29
ARLEE - Tayla Dejarlais 10, Chelsea Allaire 8, Melissa Ivanoff 9, Mahalia Hendren 9, Kristyn Adams 8, Skyla Perry 2.
LINCOLN - Jessica DenBoer 4, Katie Menard 6, Shelby Maughan 1, Loni Brady 5, Michelle Korman 6, Karissa Fox 4, Anna Nicolai 3.
