We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Harlem freshman RJ Ramone torched the net for 34 points in the Wildcats home opener Saturday night against the Cut Bank Wolves. Ramone drained eight three point bombs on the evening.
Senior Skylee Dirden got the Lady Cats season off to a fast start with a 37 point effort in their 81-44 win over the Cut Bank Wolves Saturday night. Dirden connected on all five of her three pointers in the first half and had notched 25 points before the break.
L'Tia Lawrence attacks the basket for two of her 16 points in the win over the Wolves.
Senior Lane Allen drives the baseline during the Wildcats season opening contest with the Cut Bank Wolves. Allen scored eight points in the game, but it was his leadership that provided the spark for the team on both sides of the ball.
The Harlem Wildcat boys and girls basketball teams saw their first action of the 2018-19 season this past Saturday when they hosted the Cut Bank Wolves.
The Lady Cats were dominant in their performance, winning 81-44 to get the season off to a fast start. The boys played well and were in it until the very end, falling 67-60.
The Lady Cats are under the direction of first year Head Coach Marlin Lawrence. He is not a new face to the program, having served as an assistant under Laramie Schwenke the past three seasons.
The girls return a very experienced group that saw the team finish at the top of the District 2B a season ago.
Back are seniors Skylee Dirden, MacKenzie Doney and Tamica Cole. Juniors L'Tia Lawrence, Krystyn Kittson, Taeshon Scheaffer and Aria Owens add depth to the varsity roster. Sophomore Melony Fetter is new to the team and was an All-Conference performer a season ago in Dodson. Freshman Taya Trottier got the start in the home opener and will be a strong contributor as well.
Seniors Sierra Jones, Nakota Begay and Shontelle Talks Different are out this season as are sophomores Gabi Bell and Alaynee Hawley. Freshman include Vanise Little, Jaycee Archambault, Chloe Messerly, Cecelia Helgeson and Mariah Messerly.
As far as the opener goes Lawrence was pleased with his teams effort, "We had some girls really step up play hard on both sides of the ball, everybody collectively played really well on the defensive and offensive ends of the court."
Dirden was hot from the get go connecting on all five of her three point attempts in the first half and tallying 25 points. She didn't cool down in the second half, finishing with 37 points in the Lady Cats lopsided 81-44 season opening win.
Lawrence has been solid for the team her first two years and was again Saturday night finishing with 16 points in the win. Trottier added 15 points in her first high school game.
"Our game plan was to push the ball, play pressure defense. We tried to get them to play our game, we were out sized so we needed to play up tempo and not allow them to get in an offensive rhythm and we were able to be pretty effective with that as a team, collectively," said Lawrence.
Lawrence knew his team would be competitive, "We have a good core group coming back in Skylee, L'tia. Taeshon Schaeffer was a great role player a year ago will look to build on that this year. Tamica Cole and Mackenzie Doney will step into bigger rolls on the team."
"We started with nine on the varsity roster with the idea of bring more up in the future as the season goes along and seeing who is ready to step into that roll," said Lawrence.
One of those is freshman Taya Trottier, "She started the opener she works very hard and puts a lot of work in during the off season," added Lawrence.
Looking to the future, "It was a nice start, I hope to see us keep working hard to get better each game. I want to see kids working hard defensively and offensively so we can get off to fast starts," said Lawrence.
Lawrence is well aware of what last season meant to the girls and the community, "Last season was a big year for the girls, the community and the school and we had a lot of success and achieved a lot that we are very proud of. Going forward this season we look to build off of that and to reach our ultimate goal that the girls have set for themselves, to make it to State and compete at the highest level. We look to do that one game at a time collectively as a team. I'm just very proud of these girls they work extremely hard day in and day out and as such it requires very minimal coaching on my part, they are extremely coachable. It's so exciting for to watch theses girls work so hard at getting better and then to see them excel on the court is so rewarding. What coach (Laramie) Schwenke did building this program is a huge part of their success,"
The Wildcat boys program is now under the direction of Geno LeValdo.
This years squad is young and includes just three seniors, Lane Allen, Hunter Gray and Vance Valenzuela. Junior out are Truth Brockie, Sonny Gray, Brad Cichosz and Angelo Underwood. Sophomores are Trenton Main, Damani Has Eagle and Brendan Walker. Freshman are RJ Ramone, Daniel Lawrence, Tyler Cichosz, Teagan Levaldo, Amari Stanley and Delray Begay.
Coach LeValdo know he has a young team but is excited about the season opener, "Lane, they layed the wood on him, he drew their attention and hit the floor quit a bit. I told the freshman they got the looks they did because of the work he was doing." One of those freshman was RJ Ramone who connected eight times from beyond the arc against Cut Bank, finishing with 34 points in the contest. The Wildcats also got eight points from Allen on the night.
Next up for the Harlem basketball teams will be the Native American Classic being played in Havre on the campus of Montana State University-Northern in the Armory gymnasium.
The Lady Cats will play the defending Class C Champion Box Elder Bears on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and Kanai at 9:15 a.m. Saturday morning.
The Wildcats will take on Heart Butte, Friday evening at 5:30 p.m. and will play Lodge Grass in the final game of the Classic Saturday night at 7:15 p.m.
Boys Basketball
Cut Bank 67 Harlem 60
Cut Bank 12 17 16 22 — 67
Harlem 11 23 6 20 — 60
Cut Bank: D. Gobert 6 7-10 19, H. Harren 8 6-8 24, B. Sweson 1 6-8 8, I. ManyGuns 0 0-0 0, D. Yasboe 0 0-0 0, B. Seewald 0 0-0 0, C. Littrel 2 2-4 6, B. Sneed 0 0-0 0, C. Kraft 3 1-2 9, I. Larson, 0 0-0 0, S. McGillis 0 0-0 0, D. Barbie 0 1-2 1, D. Gray 0 0-0 0, R. Racine 0 0-0 0. Team Fouls 17. Team Totals 20 23-34 67.
Harlem: Lane Allen 2 4-9 8, Hunter Gray 2 0-0 4, Vance Valenzuela 0 0-0 0, Truth Brockie 1 0-0 2, Trent Main 0 0-0 0, Cassius Johnson 0 0-0 0, RJ Ramone 13 0-0 34, Daniel Lawrence 2 0-0 4, Tyler Cichosz 2 1-4 5, Sonny Gray 0 0-0 0, Teagan LeValdo 1 0-0 3 Amari Stanley 0 0-0 0. Team Fouls 26. Team Totals 23 5-13 60.
