Lady Bulldogs show no bite from outside in loss to Eureka
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ST. IGNATIUS — The Lady Lions packed the middle of the paint and challenged the Lady Bulldogs outside shooters to beat them – the Lady Bulldogs weren’t up to the challenge, only connected on 10 of 39 shots from the field in a 37-25 District 7-B loss in the Doghouse Saturday night.
“They put five in the paint and said ‘shoot it’, they’ve never done that,” Mission coach Les Rice said. “If you’ve got five people daring you to make it and you can’t make a shot, it’s not a fun thing. We couldn’t make them do anything they didn’t want to do,” he added.
It wasn’t only the outside shot that the Lady Bulldogs were missing. The few times they would get the ball down in the paint, they would go away empty handed.
“It’s not like we didn’t get great opportunities. I don’t know how many shots we missed at the rim, but we lost by 12. I bet it was more than that, I’m sure of that,” Rice said.
The Lady Bulldogs came into the game planning to be patient on offense, with the Lady Lions packing the paint, the Lady Bulldogs’ patient offense came to a standstill in the first quarter. They only attempted six shots in the first quarter, missing on all of them to go into the second quarter trailing 4-2 and making Rice try to make a deal with Eureka coach John Hammond that the first one to 10 wins.
Adessa Durglo made Mission’s first field goal, putting back an offensive rebound in the Bulldogs’ opening possession in the second quarter to knot the game at four. Durglo would have another put-back midway through the second quarter to cut Eureka’s lead to 13-9. The Lady Bulldogs’ only other field goal in the first half was a 3-pointer by LaGlen Mitchell at the 6:53 mark in the second quarter to give Mission a 7-6 lead. Eureka answered right back with a 3-pointer by Alyssa White and the Bulldogs never led again. Mitchell’s trey was the Lady Bulldogs’ only 3-pointer in the game. They finished 1-for-6 behind the arc.
Going into the second half trailing 17-9 and only connecting on 3 of 17 shots in the first half, the Lady Bulldogs became more aggressive in the second half pushing the ball inside.
Durglo scored seven of Mission’s nine points in the third quarter on three field goals in the paint and a free throw. Durglo finished with a team-high 10 points on 5 of 7 shooting. Katie McDonald was the Lady Bulldogs’ next highest scorer, finishing with four points.
The Lady Bulldogs never could make up ground on the Lady Lions because every time they would score Eureka had an answer. The Lady Bulldogs never scored more than three points in a row.
“It seemed like every time we scored they would score. If we hit a 3 they would hit one their next possession. I know it wasn’t every time, but it seemed like it,” Rice said.
The loss came a day after a 45-26 loss in Bigfork to the 10th-ranked Vals. The Lady Bulldogs took a 17-16 lead over the Vals with about a minute and a half to play in the first half, when McDonald connected on her third field goal in the quarter. They finished the quarter with five straight turnovers, which led to nine straight Bigfork points and the Vals, who are undefeated in district play, went into the break with a 25-17 lead.
The Lady Bulldogs only scored one point in the third quarter – a free throw by Kyla Mitchell –, while the Vals scored 11, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
McDonald led Mission with 10 points. Kyla Mitchell added six and Durglo pitched in with four.
The Lady Bulldogs (6-8, 2-4) will travel to Troy Friday and host Seeley-Swan Friday. Rice said the game against Troy is a “must-win,” if the Lady Bulldogs have any hope for the third seed at the district tournament.
Summary
Bigfork 45, Mission 26
Mission61118–26
Bigfork520119–45
MISSION - Kyla Mitchell 6, Adessa Durglo 4, Rachel Jensen 2, Katie McDonald 10, Ashley Courville 2, Bryanna Steele 2.
BIGFORK - Mallery Knoll 16, Quinci Paine 2, Lila Cenis 6, Taylor Peck 12, Caitlin Charlesbois 8, Melissa Vanderveer 1.
Eureka 37, Mission 25
Eureka 4 13 6 14–37
Mission 2 7 9 7–25
EUREKA - Tayler Holder 3, Carly Hammond 5, Steph Vogelman 10, Courtney Dickinson 4, Selene Elster 4, Cassidy Morgan 6.
MISSION - Kyla Mitchell 2, Adessa Durglo 10, Rachel Jensen 2, Katie McDonald 4, LaGlen Mitchell 3, Bryanna Steele 2, Ashley Courville 2.
