Eagles soar into tournaments

SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Elementary Eagles girls closed out their regular season on a high note, beating Frenchtown 36-11. Head Coach Brett Haines said it has been a great season and they are ready for tournaments.

Haines said he was looking forward to this year since the seventh grade girls almost went undefeated last year. The now eighth graders lived up to the expectation and played well again this year. Haines said his guards and his forwards are all strong and it is a well-balanced team.

"The girls are playing tough and the eighth grade girls are dominating a lot of games," said Haines about the A Team.

Haines said one of the highlights from the season was when the Eagles A Team took a game against Philipsburg, a team they haven't played for a couple of years that isn't in the Copper League. Philipsburg came in undefeated and the Eagles handed them a 16-point loss.

Haines said in the league St. Joes gave them the best run with only a four-point game into the second half. Even though the team didn't play with the intensity Haines expects, they still took the win by 12 points.

The Eagles left Frenchtown in the dust the last game of the season. The Eagles had no mercy holding Frenchtown to only 4 points in the first half and 11 total.

Eighth-grader Emily Maughan led the Eagles breaking into the double digits with 17 points. Also scoring for the Eagles: Kyla Conley, 6; Grace Mercado, 5; Tru Good, 2; Dani Sexton, 2; Ava Thornsberry, 2 and Nova Wilke, 2.

Looking towards tournaments this coming week, Haines feels the team is where they need to be.

"We need to come out and play our game, and play smart. We will be tough to beat," said Haines. "Only a few teams have given us a run so far so I hope we keep that up."

Without a full team, the fifth and sixth grade B Team lost their first two games against Lincoln's A team and Charlo's seventh graders.

"If we could take those games back and it would be a whole different story," said Haines.

Haines said he was really impressed with how far the fifth and sixth grade players came over the season. He said they look for each other, pass to each other and play tough defense.

In their last game against Frenchtown, they battled for everything. With less than four minutes left on the clock they were down one point.

"They unloaded on them. The young girls have just been playing phenomenal against bigger and stronger girls," said Haines. "We've got skinny little girls that are mean. [At the end of the game] they just went on a scoring frenzy and just buried the other team."

The Eagles finished the game 26-17 with a win to close out their season. Aubrey Matthew led the scoring for the B Team with 13 points. Also scoring: Lilly Boyd, 9; Bailey Bartlett, 2 and Nova Wilke, 2.

The Eagles will play in the Copper League Small School Championship Game Friday, March 15 at 1 p.m. at the University of Montana Adams Event Center.