THREE FORKS - The Mission Lady Bulldogs fell to 0-2 in the early

part of the season with a pair of losses in the Three Forks

Tournament over the weekend, but ended up with plenty of positives

to draw upon moving forward.

On Friday, Dec. 9, the Lady Bulldogs fell to Big Timber 47-27,

but not before starting to put things together in the fourth

quarter.

THREE FORKS - The Mission Lady Bulldogs fell to 0-2 in the early part of the season with a pair of losses in the Three Forks Tournament over the weekend, but ended up with plenty of positives to draw upon moving forward.

On Friday, Dec. 9, the Lady Bulldogs fell to Big Timber 47-27, but not before starting to put things together in the fourth quarter.

Mission trailed 42-12 entering the final period, but outscored Big Timber 15-5 the rest of the way.

"Both games of the weekend played out the same," Les Rice, Mission head coach, said. "We came out and played well early, then got behind by halftime. We struggled a bit with the pace and physical play. It took awhile to adjust to that and we did better things in the second half after adjusting."

The Lady Bulldogs spread out the scoring, with Katrina Stevens scoring seven points, Loren Erickson and Twyala Hogge six apiece and Bryanna Steele and Cecelia Koskela four each.

"That's going to have to be one of our assets," Rice said of the balanced scoring attack. "We're going to try to play eight or nine players and we need them all to be a scoring threat. We didn't shoot as well as we could have, but hopefully we'll bring it along and get balance from a number of players."

Mission outrebounded Big Timber 35-29, with Stevens leading the way with eight boards. Erickson, Koskela and Stephanie Lewandowski each added three assists in the loss.

The following day, the Lady Bulldogs hung tough with Boulder for most of the game, but ended up falling 59-33. Mission was within 15 entering the fourth at 45-30, but couldn't put together a late run.

Erickson took over the scoring charge on Saturday with a team-high 14 points.

"I really thought she played well offensively and defensively running the show for us," Rice said. "She shot the ball better the second night."

Lewandowski scored five points for the Lady Bulldogs, while Steele and Koskela each added four.

Sophie Woodcock contributed three points, Hogge two and Stevens one in the defeat.

Rice has a week of practice ahead for his girls as they look to bounce back this weekend against Deer Lodge and Lake County neighbor Charlo.

"We talked about that on the way home," Rice said. "A couple things we need to be better on is pace of game, figuring out what pace we want to play at, as well as playing better without the ball.

"I thought we played a couple very good, physical teams," Rice added. "I saw some things I liked and we'll look to accentuate what we did well."

MISSION VS BTIM.

Big Tim. - 14 - 18 - 10 - 5 - 47

Mission - 4 - 3 - 5 - 15 - 27

Lady Bulldogs scoring - Loren Erickson 6, Bryanna Steele 4, Cecelia Koskela 4, Katrina Stevens 7, Twyala Hogge 6

MISSION VS BOUL.

Boulder - 19 - 10 - 16 - 14 - 59

Mission - 7 - 8 - 15 - 3 - 33

Lady Bulldogs scoring - Loren Erickson 14, Stephanie Lewandowski 5, Bryanna Steele 4, Cecelia Koskela 4, Katrina Stevens 1, Sophie Woodcock 3, Twyala Hogge 2