Girls' team looks to pick up pace in opening weekend

The Glasgow girls basketball team took it easy in its half of the Red-White scrimmage, displaying about half of its offense and perfecting some of the smaller parts of its game.

With teams comprised between varsity and JV players, the flow was understandably stunted, but the team played good defense, head coach Willie Thibeault said.

“We need to work on our help defense yet,” Thibeault said. “But I've seen a tremendous improvement this year from where these same kids were last year. A lot of kids have come a long way.”

The Scotties didn't quite run at full speed during the game making sure the offense was run crisply.

“We really did a nice job,”Thibeault said. “I thought we made some nice passes. We missed some bunnies, but fatigue was a factor.”

The team is still getting itself in basketball shape after a fall when most of the girls have participated in other sports. To compensate, the coaches have been running the girls hard and working with them to get their game stamina up to a midseason level.

“This first week of practice is brutal,” Thibeault said. “A lot of the girls who come from volleyball are in great shape to just jump, jump, jump, but when you have to run and jump its different. Same with the cross country girls, they're in great shape to run, but stopping and running again is different.”

The scrimmage was used as a nice warm-up for this weekends slate of games, where they will take on tough matches with Scobey and Glendive. Scobey, who the Scotties will play in the season opener on Friday, is a solid Class C team who could pose some challenges if they play in a zone defense. Glendive returns most of its players from last season's third place finisher in Class A, not to mention Montana Lady Griz recruit Carly Selvig in the middle.

“Glendive is just going to get in our face,” Thibeault said. “That's just how that Eastern A is, they just flat get after you. Scobey is just a very strong Class C program. I enjoy having them on our regionalized schedule because they give you a good game every time.”

The Scotties will be looking to get out on the break, hoping to run by teams and score points in the open court.

“We will look to run,” Thibeault said. “We're going to have to. We're vertically challenged for the most point. We're going to have to get out and run.”

The girls have the advantage of a deep team as well, and should be able to go nine players deep, allowing them to keep their legs fresh during the season.

The games this weekend will be on the road in Scobey and Glendive. The Scotties open their home schedule on Dec. 19 against Sidney.