By: Logan Parvinen

Butte Central Lady Maroons 41, Frenchtown Lady Broncs 54

The Lady Maroons of Butte Central hosted the Lady Broncs of Frenchtown in a rematch of the January 7th matchup which saw the Lady Broncs rout the Lady Maroons by a score of 61-19. In what looked like a game headed toward a similar defeat for the Lady Maroons, coach Quinn Carter of Butte Central called a timeout with 6:46 remaining in the fourth quarter. After the team broke out of the huddle, the Lady Maroons showed a side that hasn’t been seen from them in a while.

Let us start from the beginning.

After coming off a big loss to the crosstown rivals in purple, it was interesting to see how the Lady Maroons would bounce back.

The Lady Maroons were very timid on the offensive side of the ball after giving up four straight turnovers which resulted in 8 fast-break points for the Lady Broncs. 6 of those 8 points were scored by 6-foot-1 freshman phenom Mason Quinn. After a 13-0 run by Frenchtown, freshman Arika Stajcar put the Lady Maroons on the board with a three-pointer. Mollie Drew also added a two-point field goal to the scoreboard after grabbing an offensive board.

After a 16-5 lead heading into the second quarter, the Lady Broncs put even more pressure on the Lady Maroons offense by disrupting passing lanes and forcing more turnovers. The Lady Broncs defensive effort was so stout that the only basket made by the Lady Maroons was from Bado with two minutes remaining in the quarter. The Maroons only shot the ball six times in the second quarter with Bados two-pointer being the only one to fall in. The Lady Maroons defense was a bright spot in an otherwise dark offensive effort. BC held Frenchtown to 5 of 13 shooting with two of the field goals coming off of fast breaks.

With the score being 28-7 at halftime, the Lady Maroons entered the locker room for a much-needed cooldown.

In these circumstances, it is crucial as a coach to not let adversity alter the game in any way. Adversity can come in many different forms. For the Lady Maroons and coach Carter, they have experienced every type of adversity that has been thrown at them.

In what was reminiscent of the third quarter against Butte High just three days prior, the Frenchtown Lady Broncs had the hot hand by going 4 for 6 from downtown and 2 of 3 from inside the arc. The Lady Maroons did show small signs of life offensively by going 4 for 9 from the field with 6 points from Mollie Drew and 4 from Brooke Badovinac.

With the score 46-17 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Frenchtown subbed out all but one starter. Doing this may have lit a fire under the Lady Maroons.

With 6:46 remaining in the game and down by 26 points, the Lady Maroons showed no mercy by going with the full court press defense and being aggressive at every opportunity. The offensive attack was led by star senior Brooke Badovinac who had 15 fourth quarter points to lead the team. After a 9-0 run by the Lady Maroons, Frenchtown had to take a timeout of their own.

After the timeout, the Lady Broncs subbed in another starter who sat at the beginning of the quarter. Even with that, the momentum never shifted. The Maroons were a perfect 8 for 8 on the free throw line in the fourth and went 8 for 12 on field goals.

All in all, the remarkable fourth quarter wasn’t enough to bring the margin to single digits but it was enough to show how a team can battle back and push themselves until the final buzzer.

When the dust all settled and the final whistle blew, the Lady Maroons took the fourth quarter battle 24-8, but lost the war 54-41.

Brooke Badovinac led the Lady Maroons in scoring with 21 points, 15 of which coming in the 4th quarter. 5-foot-10 junior Mollie Drew had 14 points and 6 rebounds. Freshman Arika Stajcar finished with 3 points and 3 rebounds. 5-foot-7 senior Maycee Anderson scored her 2 points from a steal in the fourth quarter. Maycee was the defensive leader of the team with 4 steals and 6 rebounds. Kathryn Lalicker added to the fourth quarter scoring effort with a pair of free throws.

The Frenchtown Lady Broncs saw nine different players in the scoring column. The Lady Broncs leading scorer was 6-foot junior Sadie Smith who scored 15 points in three quarters of play. The player of the game for the Lady Broncs was freshman Mason Quinn who not only scored 8 points but had 7 rebounds and 7 steals. Alexis Godin and Heather Haskins each added 7 points on the evening. Haylee Kaufman added a couple third quarter threes to add to the scoreboard. Maya Skinner, Alaina Shannon, and the sole senior on the team Tanli Croy each scored 3 points. Lauren Magnuson’s 2 points rounds out the scoring for Frenchtown.

The Lady Maroons starts their three-game road trip Saturday Feb. 4th as they travel to Livingston to play the 1-10 Lady Rangers of Park High School at 4:00pm MST. The Lady Maroons beat the Lady Rangers on Jan. 5th by a score of 68-56, which is the only win on the season for the Lady Maroons.