BOULDER – The Deer Lodge girls and Jefferson boys notched non-conference basketball wins on Friday, with the Deer Lodge girls running to a 56-42 win and the Jefferson boys grinding out a 35-27 victory.
Both girls teams got off to slow starts, playing to a 7-7 tie at the end of the first quarter. Deer Lodge, with the help of its full-court press defense, exploded for 21 points in the second quarter to build a 28-21 lead. The Wardens also scored 22 points in the fourth quarter to ice the game.
Rachael Nicholson paced Deer Lodge with 14 points, and Kamryn Scully added 12. Six other Wardens found the scoring column with Darcy Walker, Jordan Senecal and Ariel Clark each adding seven points.
Jefferson was led by Ellie Evertz, who scored 13 points, and Aubrey McMaster, who chipped in 12. As a team, the Panthers made 20 of 24 free throw attempts.
The boys game got off to an equally slow start. It took Jefferson five minutes to finally break onto the scoreboard, but the Panthers rallied to take a 7-6 lead after the first eight minutes. Bryce Harrington had a strong showing for the Panthers, scoring 13 of the team’s 16 first-half points. The Jefferson defense limited Deer Lodge to just 10 first-half points.
The second half brought more of the same as neither offense was able to get much going. Jefferson sealed the game in the fourth quarter, making eight of 11 free throws in the final stanza.
Harrington led all scorers with 13 points. Josh Eckman contributed 12, making seven of nine free throw attempts. Mead Blake (7) and Nolan Sonsteng (3) rounded out Jefferson’s scoring.
Deer Lodge got 12 points from Greydon Nicholson and 11 from Dyllon McDermind in the loss.
