The meat of the Western 7B conference schedule has not been good for the Plains Trotters.

After starting the season 7-1, the Plains girls have now lost four games in a row and seven of their last nine after a home court loss to Sanders County rival Thompson Falls last month.

The puzzling slide continued this past weekend when the Trotters lost a heart-breaking close one to Eureka, 34-32 in Plains Friday night. Things did not get any better the next night when they ran into Western 7B regular season champion Mission and lost 80-18, also in Plains.

Friday night, Eureka came in and roared out to a 15-4 lead after the first quarter. They regrouped and got their defense going, holding the Lady Lions to six points, but the Trotters could manage only four points of their own, leaving them down 21-8 at halftime.

However, Plains got things back on track in the third quarter when they outscored Eureka 14-11, creating a 33-22 Eureka lead with one quarter to play.

Then, showing they were not giving up, Plains clamped down on the Lady Lions, limiting them to a single basket while tacking on 10 to their side of the scoreboard, but they came up just short of a comeback.

Katelyn Subatch scored a game-high 13 points for the Trotters, while Eureka got nine points from Aubrey Casazza and eight from Kara Stanger.

Saturday night the league leading St. Ignatius Bulldogs came to town sporting an 8-1 7B conference record and a 14-3 overall mark. St. Ignatius’ only conference loss was to Eureka.

It didn’t take long for the Bulldogs to show why they are the 7B regular season champs, as they blasted out to a daunting 29-2 lead after one quarter of play. St. Ignatius kept up the pressure in the second quarter, outscoring the home team 26-8 on their way to a commanding 55-10 lead heading into halftime.

The Lady Dogs outscored Plains 25-8 in the second half as they coasted to their ninth conference win to close out the regular season. They lifted their overall record to 15-3.

Plains dropped to 3-7 in conference play, but is still 9-8 overall.

Ava Lawyer led the Trotters with eight points, while St. Ignatius, which owns the league’s number one seed heading into District play in Mission this coming Friday and Saturday (Feb. 16-17), got a game-best 24 points from Kieran Incashola, 17 from Ellannah Flat Lip, and 15 points from Kason Page.

In the 7B play-in games today (Tuesday) the Trotters travel to Superior for a 7 p.m. game against the Lady Bobcats.