HELENA — The Helena Capital girls basketball team is one of the hottest in the Western AA heading into this week's divisional tournament in Butte.
Though the Bruins' overall record is 9-9 but they've flipped the switch just at the right time with a four-game winning streak.
"They are playing their best basketball when they're having fun," said Capital coach Katie Garcin-Forba.
One of the team's biggest wins came against No. 2-ranked Missoula Big Sky on Feb. 22, a 55-51 victory thanks to a couple of late-game free throws by Anna Cockhill.
"I think that we just kind of had the mindset that the game was never over, and then we just had to play it the whole way through, and stick together and I think that’s what got us the win on that one," the Bruins' Katie Sheridan said.
Capital followed that with a 13-point home victory on Senior Night last Saturday against Butte, when Taylor Sayers shot 50% from deep en route to a game-high 14 points, with nine of those coming in the fourth quarter.
"I think it was just full of emotions with Senior Night, so just showing out for our crowd was pretty big," Sayers said.
The No. 4 seeded Bruins will try to keep it rolling when they tip off Thursday at the Western AA tournament against No. 5 seed Missoula Sentinel at the Butte Civic Center.
Capital will try to maintain the same mindset they've had the past couple weeks in a tournament environment.
"We keep it the same, " Garcin-Forba said. "We try and practice all season like we would when we’re on the road, when we go on Kalispell trips, when we go to Billings, we handle it like a tournament situation.
"We’ll do our pregame scouting report the night before and then go down and just let them do their thing. Then we refresh, then we go play, continue to build on where we want to be at by the end of the year, taking it one game at a time.”
