Scottie Girls: Glasgow's Final Hope

The Scottie girls hope to keep the Scotty name in contention for a state title as the girls' basketball team heads to Divisional's on Thursday, March 1 through Saturday, March 3.

The Scottie girls lead off the tournament with a familiar foe for Glasgow basketball, the Conrad Cowboys. The boys took on Conrad in their first game at divisional's, as well.

Similarly, some of the challenges the boys faced against Conrad are the same for the girls, such as the size differential between the two squads. Both of the Cowboys basketball squads are some of the tallest in the division while both the Scotties squads are the smallest teams in their division.

“We are, by far, the smallest team in our division,” said Head Coach Willie Thibault.

But the expectations are still high as the Scottie girls have placed top-four in their division four years in a row and look to make it their fifth.

“Our expectations are to play saturday night and hopefully in the late game,” said Coach Thibault.

But as the old cliché goes, the team has to take it one game at a time. With that in mind, the Scottie girls have to find a way to overcome the height disadvantage to beat Conrad. So look for Glasgow to run an up-tempo offense with the intent of making the post players for Conrad run as much as possible and maybe get tired down the stretch.

According to Coach Thibault, there are two post-players for Conrad that are their best players, so he wants to make them run up and down the court constantly while also attacking them offensively to attempt to get them into foul trouble.

But Coach Thibault knows that is just a bonus if they can succeed in those game-plans because it is not a guarantee; he is adamant that rebounding and limiting second-chance points for Conrad will be the key.

It will take an entire team effort to gather any rebounds they can while staying aggressive defensively. As Coach Thibault's teams are known for, their vaunted man-to-man defense will require the Lady Coyotes to be disciplined in their specific assignments while also knowing when to apply “help-side” defense.

It is no doubt apparent now that it will take the entire team playing well to defeat Conrad. And that is who the team needs to keep their focus on but looming after Conrad, if they are able to get a win, is heavy tournament favorite Fairfield, who has a match-up with Wolf Pointe to begin the tournament.

If all goes to plan, Glasgow will face Fairfield in the second round which would make for an outstanding match-up of two talented teams. Fairfield is even bigger than Conrad so they would certainly present a challenge for Glasgow but Coach Thibault believes they are up to it.

“We seem to play better come tournament time and thats the right time to be playing better,” said Coach Thibault.

This week will prove whether Coach Thibault is a clairvoyant in his spare time because in order to win the Division Championship, the Scottie girls will need to play their best ball of the season.