Over the course of a long season, talent may not always be enough. There are many factors involved, with injuries being a top concern for all coaches. Youth can be another.

Friday night in Charlo, those situations were on display when the top two teams in the boys 14C basketball conference met in a showdown for first place in the regular season.

Both St. Regis and Charlo came in with one conference loss each, the winner of the game having the inside track to the number one seed in the upcoming District tournament.

A close game was expected by all of the pundits and fans who packed the Charlo gym and watched as the home team Vikings ran away from visiting St. Regis 64-29 to claim the regular season championship.

Earlier in the week, St. Regis had dispatched Alberton73-41.

The St. Regis girls also lost to Charlo this past weekend by a slender 45-43 margin that saw Charlo’s sensational sophomore Seeley McDonald sneak through for a game-winning lay-up just one second ahead of the final buzzer. Like the boys, the St. Regis girls had also roughed up Alberton, 63-26 last Tuesday.

St. Regis, a team with just one senior, came in without the services of its second-leading scorer and top inside player when standout junior John Pruitt broke a bone in his hand the week before.

With Pruitt sidelined, it was up to senior Caleb Ball, the Tigers’ newly crowned all-time scoring leader, to lead a group of extremely promising sophomores, freshmen and in one case eighth grader to victory.

Last weekend the group of youngsters played a key role in St. Regis’ victory over third place Two Eagle River, paced by the long range shooting and other skills of eighth grader Conner Lulis, who picked up a lot of the slack left in the wake of Pruitt’s injury, the result of an accident in a pick-up basketball game after school.

This time, against the senior laden Charlo team, which a few weeks earlier handed St. Regis their one and only loss of the year on the Tigers’ home court, Ball and the underclassmen were not enough.

Charlo, riding the experience and quickness of seniors Tucker Love, Keaton Piedalue and Stetson Reum, along with the size and inside play of 6-6 junior Wesley Anderson, scratched out a hard-fought 13-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. They increased that lead to 22-15 by the half as the energetic crowd readied for what everyone expected would be a down-to-the-wire finish.

It was not to be.

Piedalue muscled his way to nine third quarter points, most of them inside shots, as the Vikings outscored St. Regis 23-7 to take control of the game. Piedalue finished with 14 points.

Reum then kept the pressure on the out-manned Tigers when he scored 10 of his game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter to seal the deal for the Vikings.

Lulis was the Tigers’ leading scorer with 12 points, while Ball was held to a season low seven points by an aggressive Charlo defense.

The loss dropped St. Regis to 10-2 in conference play and 14-2 overall with both losses coming at the hands of the Vikings. Charlo rose to 9-1 in the conference and 11-3 overall with the win.

Against Alberton Thursday night on the Panthers home court, St. Regis roared out to a 23-7 first quarter lead and never looked back against the Panthers, who are winless in this, their first season of varsity sports.

The Tigers outscored Alberton in every quarter as both Ball and junior Kaleb Park scored 17 points to lead the Tigers’ attack. Lulis added 10 for St. Regis.

Alberton was paced by the 15 points scored by Shea Fredette and 13 points scored by Jonah Renaud.

The Lady Tigers, meanwhile opened play Friday night in a game won by the host Lady Vikings when McDonald weaved her way through the St. Regis defense with two second remaining to put in a tie-breaking, game-winning layup that ended a fierce back-and-forth struggle between the two teams.

St. Regis held a narrow 13-10 lead at the end of the first quarter thanks to seven points from senior forward Macy Hill, who finished with a team and game-high 17 points.

The second quarter was even tighter, as both teams scored 10, leading to a 21-20 Lady Tigers lead at the half.

Three different Charlo players scored four points each in the third quarter, which ended in a 34-33 St. Regis lead.

McDonald and Ada Cote scored four points each in the final period for the Lady Vikings as the home team escaped with the conference victory.

McDonald and senior Hayleigh Smith paced Charlo with12 points each.

The loss dropped St. Regis to 5-6 in league play and 8-7 overall, while Charlo rose to 9-2 in league play and 11-4 on the year with the victory. Charlo played Superior, the 14C leader and unbeaten league team, on the road Saturday and lost to the Lady Bobcats by three points, giving Superior the girls regular season title.

In their game against Alberton Thursday in Alberton, the Lady Tigers fought to a narrow 14-8 lead at the end of the first quarter as they scrappy Lady Panthers had one of their best defensive efforts of the season. St. Regis got it going in the second period, outscoring Alberton 22-9 to head into the intermission with a 36-17 lead. Hill scored 16 of her game high 25 points in the first half.

The Lady Tigers then outscored the home team 27-9 in the second half to seal the win. In addition to Hill’s 25, St. Regis got 13 points from Avery Burnham.

Georgia Fredette paced Alberton with 11 points.

St. Regis closes out its regular season this weekend when they travel to Valley Christian for a pair of non-conference games Friday night. They return home Saturday evening for games with Victor, also non-conference.

Charlo has a make-up game this Tuesday at home vs Alberton, then closes out the regular season with non-conference road games against Seeley-Swan Friday evening and Arlee Saturday night.