ANACONDA — The Missoula Loyola girls basketball team won a thriller over rival Florence in the District 6B tournament championship game on Saturday to clinch a top seed heading into divisionals this week.
The Breakers' lone loss this season came against the Falcons, but in two rematches Loyola has been victorious while peaking at the right time.
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO:
"I think we hold ourselves to a really high standard and sometimes like that Florence game, we let it slip," Loyola senior Caitrin Harrington said. "But we just emphasize getting back to that standard and pushing each other every day in practice and it works."
"I think it was definitely good that we had the loss when we did, because it just really showed what we had to work on early in the season," senior Sammy McHugh added. "So then we've just gotten better and better since."
Sporting a 19-1 record this season it's been a revenge tour attitude for Loyola, a team that made the Class B semifinals at state a year ago as the Breakers finished third.
Behind three seniors in Harrington, McHugh and Sloane McCall, as well as junior standout Spencer Laird, who recently committed to Stanford, her younger sister in freshman Emme Laird, and a cast of veteran players of varying grades with deep experience, expectations were high for Loyola in their encore performance after last season. Freshman Amya Lindauer has also been a key starter for the Breakers.
"We're just having a great time all the time. We have lots of jokes. We listen to lots of music all the time. I mean, everyone's always having a good time," McCall said. "We get along really well."
"It's been so fun. Everyone on this team is like best friends," McHugh added. "We see each other at school, we hang out. So it's just like playing with your best friends, and we all want it for each other. Not just to win a state championship, but just to do it for each other and with each other."
It's a tight-knit group that now turns its attention to the Western B divisional this week in Pablo with eyes on another trophy before the Class B state tournament in Bozeman next week.
"It means everything. I feel supported from everyone," Harrington said. "I feel like every single day someone is making me better and I'm making someone else better. And it's like the best group of girls I could ever ask for."
"I just think staying together," McCall added. "We're pretty close, but staying close and continuing to just do the best we can all the time and having full effort and leaving nothing on the court."
