After some amazing games and surprising finishes, one thing is clear when it comes to the Western 7B girls basketball conference: the top spot, in fact the top four spots are up for grabs.

In what has become an extremely balanced race for the top, Thompson Falls, Mission, Eureka and the Trotters are all in contention as the season races past the halfway point.

Plains was riding high in the saddle, busting out of the gate with a 7-1 start. Five games later, the Trotters are 8-4 on the year.

Perhaps more importantly they are 2-3 in the conference after being swept this past weekend by two of those other contenders, Mission and Eureka.

Thursday night Plains traveled to St. Ignatius where they ran into a red hot Lady Bulldogs team that sent them away with a 61-24 loss.

Then this past Friday they made the long trip to Eureka where they were upended by an almost identical score, falling to the Lady Lions 60-22.

The pair of conference losses dropped Plains to 2-3 in the 7B standings.

The good news is the Trotters will have one more shot at the three teams they are fighting with for regular season conference supremacy.

For now, the bitter sting of defeat is no doubt a tough pill to swallow.

In St. Ignatius Thursday night, the Trotters and Lady Bulldogs battled through a close first quarter that ended with the host team up 11-8.

Then the wheels fell off. Mission, which is currently 8-2 overall and 3-0 in conference play, exploded for 16 points in the second while holding Plains to just four. That gave the home team a 27-12 lead at the half.

Things did not get any better in the third quarter as the Lady Bulldogs kept up the defensive pressure and outscored the Trotters 19-3 to secure a 45 14 lead with one quarter remaining.

Mission added six points to their lead in the fourth quarter as they coasted to victory on their home court. Lady Bulldog Izzy Evans led all scorers with 14 points, as nine Mission players got their names in the score book.

A long bus ride to Eureka the next night didn’t help as the Lady Lions were locked and loaded.

Eureka jumped out to an 18-2 first quarter lead and never looked back en route to their third conference win against no losses. By halftime the lead had grown to 36-9.

The Lions then outscored the Trotters 24-13 in the second half to seal the lopsided win.

Aubrey Casazza had 16 points to lead the Lions, who improved their overall record to 4-5. Eureka also got 10 points from Kara Stanger.

Katelyn Subatch topped the Trotters with five points.

Plains’ next game is a home game this Saturday versus Troy.