Lady Trojans take tournament title
Lady Trojans come home with Championship Trophy in District Tournament
By BETHANY ROLFSON
The Western News
After a victorious season for the Troy Lady Trojans, the girls team have come home with the District Championship.
As they drove into town from Eureka, the Lady Trojans were escorted by parade.
Brenda Goe, owner of Main Street Perk in Troy and senior Lady Trojan Allie Brown’s mom, was heading back from Eureka when she realized they should organize a parade to escort the girls back into Troy.
Goe got ahold of the fire department, police department and all the parents she could catch.
As they drove into the small town of Troy at 11 p.m., sirens whistled, people on their front porches turned their lights off and on, and several people stood on the street to greet the Lady Trojans.
“These girls have put in the time and work for years now,” head basketball coach Justin Young remarked. “Saturday night was just an accumulation of all the blood sweat and tears they have shed day after day, practice after practice. These young ladies are a collection of talented strong willed individuals who have made personal sacrifices to forge the bonds necessary to be a special team. Together they earned the championship, and I couldn’t be happier for them. They deserve it.”
Young said that after splitting the regular season with Eureka, the girls were eager for the rubber match.
It took over three minutes of play before Aurora Becquart was able to put the first point on the board with a free throw. After that, Young said, the game was an absolute thriller.
“After shaking off some first quarter nerves, the girls settled in and jumped out to a 14 to seven lead,” Young said. “Eureka made a small run midway through the second to close the gap within three, but that is the closest they would come the rest of the night. The Lady Trojans put the clamps down and held them to four points for the next 12 minutes to enter the fourth quarter leading 36 to 16. It was some of the best defense the girls played all year.”
The Lady Trojans got after the ball and created, some tough angles for Eureka’s offense, hitting shots when they needed to and controlled the momentum for most of the game, Young said.
Then, it was the big game against Bigfork, a team that’s been fighting for the number one spot with Troy and Libby the whole season.
The rival team, Young said, used their press to cause havoc the whole game limiting the offensive output to a 18 to 15 Troy lead at half.
“Bigfork thrives on chaos,” Young said. “They have fast, long players that force you into tough situations. I was proud of the way our girls handled it. With that kind of pressure and those type of athletes, there are going to be times when you make silly looking mistakes.”
Despite the pressure, Young said the guards stayed mentally tough, and did a good enough job of breaking the press to get us some good looks at the basket.
Towards the end of the game is when the Lady Trojans flew past Bigfork offensively.
Up 29-27 after three quarters, Troy outscored the Valkyries 19-13 in the final eight minutes.
Allie Coldwell and Alyssa Lewis took over the fourth quarter scoring a combined 15 points.
Coldwell led the team overall with 17 points, Alyssa Lewis scored 13, Aurora Becquart tallied 8, Kaitlyn Downey added 5, Sami Rohrich scored 3 and Allie Brown chipped in 2.
Looking towards Divisionals, Young said he and his team are not trying to get over-confident.
“At divisional everyone’s record is 0-0,” Young said. “We just take it one game at a time. Our goals do not change one iota for this tournament, be in the moment, win each possession and have fun”