Pioneer girls unable to climb back from deficits

The Big Sandy girls found themselves in an early hole against both their weekend hardcourt opponents and the Lady Pioneers could not climb all the way out in either matchup.

The Pioneers (0-3, 1-5) played even with Denton-Geyser-Stanford after a turnover-filled first quarter but fell 47-32 Friday at home. On Saturday, they ran into the buzzsaw known as the Great Falls Tribune No.3-ranked Fort Benton Longhorns, losing 70-11.

Seven giveaways by Big Sandy allowed the visiting Bearcats to rush out to an 18-5 lead at the end of the first period.

The Pioneers tightened up their handle on the basketball in the second quarter and outscored DGS 8-6. Senior Lainey Gregory began the rally by sinking a three-pointer with a defender's hand up in her face. Freshman Kylee Sternberg added another near the end of the half from the top of the three-point arc.

Gregory and Sternberg continued their 1-2 punch, each draining another trey from the elbow nearest the scoring table to open the Pioneers' offensive efforts in the second half. Senior Amanda Cline added another triple from the opposite elbow to round out the third-period scoring for Big Sandy.

Trailing 40-22 at the outset of the fourth quarter, the Pioneers went on a 7-0 run fueled by another elbow 3 drained by Gregory, Sternberg snatching a steal and sinking both foul shots awarded at the opposite end of the floor and Cline putting in another pair from the charity stripe. Big Sandy would come no closer, however, as DGS stretched the lead to 46-29 before senior Seanna Demontiney splashed one last three-pointer as 1 minute, 4 seconds remained. That narrowed the deficit back to the same margin it had been at the end of the first quarter.

Sydney Von Bergen led all scorers with 22 points for DGS. Gregory reached double figures with 11 for Big Sandy.

"We gave them a good run. We just got a little down on ourselves the first half," said Pioneers coach Pete Jerrel. "We made some adjustments and rallied back ... making some better passes."

Jerrel noted the Lady Pioneers were trying to do too much too soon with errant floor-length passes in the first period before they settled down.

By the second half, their perimeter shooting began to fire on nearly all cylinders but it would not be enough to overcome the early deficit.

"We started trusting ourselves again to shoot the ball. We're gaining more confidence in ourselves," Jerrel said. "We gave up some easy lay-ups (defensively) but those were risks we had to take (in the comeback effort)."

Jerrel acknowledged the Longhorns represented a daunting challenge.

"They're a very, very good team," he said. "We'll be trying to get some more shots up and hopefully we'll be able to put a little pressure on them."

The 6-0 'Horns, however, would have none of it. Entering the game with a resumé of victories by 17, 46 and 31 points before back-to-back 22-point margins, Fort Benton played arguably its best game of the season hosting Big Sandy. The Lady Longhorns will get a crack at DGS in their next outing.

Big Sandy remains in 9C district play when the Lady Pioneers go Thursday to Box Elder for a 6 p.m. tilt. They return home and face North Star at 3 p.m. at home Saturday.