As complicated as they can be, sports are also as basic as the numbers used to designate success on the field or court of play.

Numbers were not kind to the St. Regis Lady Tigers the week before this last one as they were overwhelmed in their two final contests before the holiday break.

Along the way the Lady Tigers were beaten 42-7 by a very good team from Drummond, a couple days after regional rival Hot Springs turned numbers into weapons.

The Lady Savage Heat came to town last Friday (Dec 15) and were in charge from the beginning of what is usually a hard-fought contest worthy of rivalry designation.

The scrappy-quick Lady Savage Heat used a smothering defense to take a 15-6 lead on the Lady Tigers in the first quarter, then extended that margin to 28-12 by halftime.

St. Regis fought back as best it could in the third quarter, outscoring Hot Springs 12-9 to make it a 40-21 ballgame with one quarter to play.

But the damage had already been done, and by time it was all over, Hot Springs piled up 50 points on their way to a 50-27 win.

The Lady Savage Heat spread the scoring load around, with four players racking up double figures, paced by the 11-points each from senior forward Lauryn Aldridge and sophomore guard Callie Cano.

Aldridge had one of her better games scoring under the basket for the Lady Savage Heat. Cano, meanwhile, nailed a pair of three-pointers as part of her scoring night.

Junior Brooke Jackson, and sophomore shooting guard Kara Christensen had 10 points each for the girls from Hot Springs.

Shannon Todd led St. Regis with seven points for the game.

One night later, in another game at St. Regis, the Lady Trojans used an aggressive defense to overwhelm the Lady Tigers

The visitors ran up a 12-0 first quarter lead, then pitched another shutout at the Lady Tigers in the second quarter to take a commanding 22-0 lead at the half.

The lead was simply too much for St. Regis to overcome. In fact, in the third quarter, Drummond outscored St. Regis 15-4 to go up 37-5 with one quarter to play. They upped their lead by four in the final quarter to secure the win.

St. Regis did not score until the five minute mark of the third quarter, when promising freshmen Emma Gillette hit a two-pointer. They added another two and a free throw to avoid a third straight shutout quarter.

Remington Cline led all scorers with 12 points as the Lady Trojans ran their record to 3-2. The loss dropped St. Regis to 1-4 on the year.

Next up for St. Regis is a road trip to Seeley, Friday (Jan 5), followed by a home game versus Troy in St. Regis the next night.

    Sophomore guards Kara Chrisensen (left, red) and St. Regis' Shyla Dalka were major players in the recent game between the Lady Heat and the Lady Tigers). (Photo by Chuck Bandel/VP-MI)