The Arlee High School Scarlets’ basketball coach Bill Stockton said he has driven the message to his girls about “peaking” in February.

Stockton’s message has resonated with the Scarlets en route to their 8-win steak as they prepare for the last stretch of their season.

“We always talk about wanting to peak in February and we ended January on a seven-game win streak,” Stockton said. “We are starting to work really well and getting ready to peak at the right time, hopefully.”

Stockton attributes his team’s current win-streak to his team’s offensive production.

“That is the biggest thing that I feel like on offense, we continue to get better, we understand our teammates, and make better decisions with the basketball,” Stockton said. “Our turnover numbers have gone drastically down from the start of the season to the new year.”

Stockton said he felt the team learned a lot from their victory over Charlo that took a fourth quarter surge and free throw efficiency to be able to beat their conference rival two weeks ago.

“I think the girls are pretty confident right now and as we’ve mentioned at the beginning of the year, our guards Noelle West, Ashley Tanner and Nellie Desjarlais have been filling in those guard spots from our graduating seniors,” Stockton said. “They have all been stepping up these past few weeks. Two of the three teams in District challenged the girls to rebound this weekend.”

Alyssia Vanderburg and Bryndle Goyins both snagged 16 rebounds each against Plains.

“After Charlo, I felt like we did a pretty poor job of rebounding against them,” Stockton said. “Ever since that game, I challenged them to make sure we are getting every rebound. We got many second chance baskets in our game this weekend. Our posts really answered that challenge by grabbing six rebounds apiece and a ton of rebounds in the high school.”

Stockton said he is “optimistic” about his team’s prospects come Western Class-C District Tournament time that will be Feb. 16 in Pablo at the SKC’s gymnasium.

“We’ve done a better job of eliminating turnovers, making sure we are smart with the basketball, and making the most out of each possession,” Stockton said. “Our shooters keep the ball rolling. They’ve answered where we needed them to and continued to be confident in shooting the ball throughout the tournament.”

The Class-C District Tournament will be held on Feb 16-17 at the Salish Kootenai College at Joe McDonald Gym.

By the end of the regular-season the Scarlets could enter the tournament on an 11-game win streak.