The Charlo Lady Vikings took three last week, winning 52-15 on Tuesday, Jan. 20 at Noxon, then 53-17 on Friday in Charlo, and finally beating cross-town rival Mission 53-38 in Charlo.

Hosting Mission, Charlo had a chance to make a statement. Two teams that have been winning a lot of games lately met and only one could emerge victorious.

Getting an early 12-6 lead in the first quarter, the Lady Vikings played to keep it. If the Bulldogs had any intention of coming back, and they most certainly did – making good pushes throughout with a lot of crafty cuts and screens inside – they would have to beat Charlo’s firepower.

To keep the early lead in tact, junior Stephanie Maughan stepped up and drained two treys at the beginning of the second quarter. Combined with good inside play, Charlo managed to go into the break with a 10-point lead.

The game was played well on both sides, with not many steals to speak of, head coach Bret Thompson said.

Thompson said not turning the ball over was the key to the win. And with his team shooting in the 40 percentile, even late foul trouble couldn’t bring the Vikings down.

When time expired, Charlo had five players with four fouls.

But late in the game, when fouls might have given Mission a chance, superb ball control won the Vikings the game. Charlo played the fourth quarter with discipline.

“I don’t know that we had a turnover in the last four or five minutes,” Thompson said.

He said his team has stuck with a defense that works, and has continued to improve throughout the season. It definitely got the job done against a Mission squad that had been on a bit of a hot streak and came to compete.

Maughan’s second quarter scoring was padded by consistent shooting throughout the game and propelled her to a team-leading 15 points when it was all over. Junior Stephanie Murphy had 13, junior Jaris Kelley scored 10, senior Shianne Montgomery made six, freshman Kinley Pope had five and freshman Deondra Brown and junior Courtney Couture each came away with three.

Murphy led on the glass with six rebounds and in the passing game with four assists.   

Charlo came into the Mission game on the right foot, with two landslide wins against Noxon.

The Noxon games came pretty easily for the Lady Vikings.

The team’s dominant scorer was Murphy with 19 in night one and another 16 points in night two.

Charlo plays next at 7 p.m. on Friday at Two Eagle River in Pablo and then hosts Hot Springs at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Charlo lost its first conference game of the year to Hot Springs and is looking for a key conference win this time around, Thompson said.

Thompson said his team needs to be careful with the ball in that one.

“They are a transition team. The fewer turnovers we have, the fewer points they are going to get,” Thomposn said. 

Charlo improved its record to 9-2 with the week’s three wins.