Playing their best basketball of the season at prime time, coach Zack Lott and his St. Regis Lady Tigers enjoyed a fine District 14C tournament in Polson last week, winning two of four games and finishing a solid fourth in the tourney after placing fifth in regular season play.

Completing the season in Polson, the No. 5 Lady Tigers upset fourth seeded Two Eagle River 42-33 in the first round Thursday, lost 43-15 to Charlo in the semifinals Friday, came back to eliminate Noxon 50-30 Saturday morning and finally, fell to Hot Springs in a tight 38-33 consolation game contest to complete their busy 14C tournament appearance.

It was a productive finish, an encouraging end of the season for Lott and company in Polson, made more remarkable by the fact that the Tigers were missing two of their best players, Shelby Simkins and Khiala Teeters, due to late season injuries.

“The girls stepped up all weekend long, we are super proud of how they competed in Polson,” Lott said. “We are going to miss our five seniors but maybe they can look back someday and say they were in on the start of something very good for Lady Tiger basketball, that they left the program in better shape than they found it. We hope to build on this moving forward and thank them for their efforts.”

The Tigers had lost to Two Eagle only a week earlier when an ice cold start left them in a deep deficit to begin that game. Avoiding a poor start this time, the Tigers built a lead early and battled the Eagles off in the end to score the big win.

Playing perhaps the game of her life, Emma Gillette led the Lady Tigers to the win with 20 points, Shannon Todd threw in nine, Mikayla Bass, Daisy Sansom and Izzy Hardy three apiece and Mae Grosenbaugh and Lilly Sansom two each.

Against Charlo, Todd scored seven to lead St. Regis, while Brielle Zempel and GG Hawk scored 15 and nine points each, respectively for Charlo.

Back on court against Noxon Saturday morning, the Tigers eliminated the Devils behind 12 points from Daisy Sansom and eight more from Gillette. Jacey Pruitt, Bass and Todd added six each, Grosenbaugh and Dalka three apiece and Hardy two.

In the season-ending loss to Hot Springs, Gillette was good for a game-high 11 points, Todd scored nine, Dalka and Daisy Sansom four apiece, Lilly Sansom three and Hardy two.