Frosh Valkyries split final games

The froshmore girls basketball team split their final two games of the season, beating Whitefish 24-13 but falling to Ronan 37-15.

The Valkyries were in Ronan on Saturday, where they struggled with illness and missing players.

"The girls just didn't want to play," said Jim Epperly, Bigfork High School froshmore girls basketball coach. "We just didn't show up. We didn't shoot well and we got discouraged when we couldn't get our shots to fall."

In addition to many of the girls fighting illnesses, the Vals were without Shelby Scoggins and Emily Stephens. Scoggins was out of town and Stephens broke her hand during the team's game in Plains.

The Vals trailed the Maidens 26-13 at the end of the first half and scored just two points in the second half.

Bigfork's leading scorer was Miranda Miller, who played down from the junior varsity team for just the first quarter and scored six points.

On Thursday the Vals did much better when they hosted the Lady Bulldogs. Bigfork scored eight points in each of the first two quarters while shutting out Whitefish.

The Lady Bulldogs finally got on the board in the third quarter with nine points, and they allowed the Vals to scored just one point. Bigfork fought back in the fourth and held onto the lead by outscoring Whitefish 7-4.

"I was worried when Emily broke her hand that we were going to have trouble scoring without her," Epperly said. "She has been our leading scorer and our go-to girl this season."

Epperly said MaKenna Gembala helped to fill that void with her game-high 10 points.

"She had a great game," Epperly said. "She was all over the place making rebounds and assists. She played well in Ronan too. She was one to the girls that was playing really hard in Ronan. She picked up the slack this week where we were missing Emily."

Chelsea Olson scored five points, including a 3-pointer.

"Chelsea has improved so much this year," Epperly said. "She and Sierra Fischer both played really well."

Miller joined the froshmore team again for the first quarter and scored four points.

Last week's games wrap up the froshmore girls season. They finished with a 5-7 record, which Epperly said he was proud of them for considering they had a 0-3 start.

"They did a great job of working hard and steadily improving," Epperly said. "Hopefully, those girls will stick with it and move up to the JV and varsity."