Heat girls split 14C contests

The Hot Springs Savage Heat girls split District 14C conference games last week, falling to Sanders County rival Plains 51-46 in Hot Springs Friday and churning out a 36-29 road win over Noxon Saturday.

Coach Richard Jackson will guide his Savage Heat through two more 14C contests this week, hosting St. Regis Thursday and visiting league-leading Charlo Saturday in their final games before the conference tournament the following week.

“The more games we can win, the better position we can put ourselves in for the tournament,” Jackson said. “Our goal is to be playing our best at tournament time, so every game is important from here on out.”

He said the game with Plains last week was a good one for the Heat to get at this critical juncture in the season. “Plains is a quality team and we had a good battle with them, even if we lost,” he said. “We played cat and mouse with the lead, would get down and then fight our way back.”

In support of Jackson’s analysis, the Trotters jumped out to an 18-8 lead before the Heat won the second stanza 19-10 to close to within one at 28-27 by halftime. Plains won the third quarter 8-4 to build the advantage to 36-31 before holding off Hot Springs in the fourth quarter to post the win.

“We played cat-and-mouse with them all night,” Jackson offered. “We would get down and then fight our way back, get down and fight back, we just couldn’t get them in the end.”

McKennzie Cannon led the Heat girls against Plains with 14 points, Katelyn Christensen scored 13 points and secured nine rebounds, Sage Jackson added seven points, Lizzy Fisher and Danielle Graham added three points each and Sydney Jackson two.

Brianna Gray had seven rebounds, Sydney Jackson three assists and three steals, and Fisher four steals.

See Plains story for Trotter scoring in the game.

At Noxon, Christensen again just missed a double double, scoring a team-high 11 points and pulling down nine rebounds, in addition to grabbing four steals, Cannon added nine points and four blocked shots, Sage Jackson seven points and five rebounds, Gray five points and Sydney Jackson four points, four assists and three steals.

Please see other story for Noxon scoring.