GREAT FALLS — Going into a matchup with Denton-Geyser-Stanford-Geraldine on Jan. 22, Chester-Joplin-Inverness' girls basketball team was 10-0. But that perfect mark suffered its first defeat in that contest.
Since then, though, the Hawks have won the last four and are 6-0 in District 10C. Their overall record is 14-1.
"We have girls that are scoring 30 points a game and others who don't have any, but that one who isn't scoring or doesn't have the statistics or the points, they're still making a huge contribution," senior MaRae Smail said following Saturday's 72-19 win over P-D-B at Dutton-Brady High School. "Just knowing that already boosts our confidence, too."
WATCH THE VIDEO:
"We have a great group of girls this year, we're obviously looking for a divisional title," junior Brynn Kammerzell said. "We're taking it one game at a time, we got to stay strong and keep our heads, but we're hoping to make it far at state. Super excited."
"I think we're definitely getting better," junior Brie Mattson said. "And we've felt the team chemistry over the past couple games since (D-G-S-G), and just everybody contributing in their own way is really good."
Smail is back with the Hawks after two years spent in Twin Bridges.
"Coming back to a team that feels like a family is just the best thing a person could possibly feel," Smail said.
In the six games C-J-I has played against its district foes, the Hawks are winning by an average of just over 56 points.
But that aforementioned loss to D-G-S-G — which is still undefeated — was a wake-up call, as the Hawk trio explained.
"It kind of humbled us, made us go to practice want to work 10 times harder and work together a little bit more," Smail said. "We can build off of that loss and, you know, come back as a better team."
"We knew they're super fast, strong, physical, good shooters. So we knew these things going in and we practiced for it," Kammerzell said. "We started off a little slow, which is hard to come back from, but now we know what we need to work on."
"It was at the right point in the season, in my opinion, so we have plenty of time to prepare," Mattson said.
The Hawks look to keep rolling on as they host Cascade on Saturday.
