NC Girls Cruise to District 3C Title

The North Country girls basketball team continued to cruise through their season, adding two more wins to their record at the District 3C Basketball Tournament in Glasgow. The Mavericks head to the Eastern C Divisional Tournament as the District Conference Champions and District 3C Champions with a 20-0 overall record.

North Country downed the Nashua Porcupines 66-23 Thursday after receiving a bye in the first round of the tournament. They moved on to the championship game Saturday to face the Scobey Spartans. The Mavericks won decisively, 58-34, to claim the title.

Thursday night against Nashua, the Mavericks established their lead early in the first quarter and never looked back. They outscored the Porcupines 16-7 in the first and held a 35-13 lead at halftime. North Country continued to light up the nets in the third and fourth quarters with 16 and 15 points, respectively. They held Nashua to 6 and 4 points in the same frames.

As a team, North Country forced 27 turnovers, had 19 assists and snagged 15 offensive rebounds.

Paige Wasson powered the team with 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals. Teagan Erickson put up 14 points with seven boards, seven assists and six steals. Kendall Scheffelmear scored 8 points and Mattea McColly connected for 7 with a free throw. Shelbi LaBrie had four rebounds and five steals with 6 points. Kora LaBrie also put up 6 points, with five assists and three steals. BaiLee McColly added 5 with a three-pointer and Cienna Strommen hit a bucket.

The Mavericks shot 51.8 percent from the court and 58.3 percent at the free throw line.

Nashua was called for 11 fouls, while North Country held theirs to 10 infractions. K. LaBrie drew four whistles. M. McColly, Scheffelmear, Erickson, Wasson and B. McColly had one foul a piece with one foul going unattributed on the stats sheet.

Saturday night, the opening minutes looked like it was going to be a tight game. North Country took a few minutes to figure out the rims in Glasgow again, but once they did, they snatched the momentum and dismantled the Spartans.

By the end of the first eight minutes, the Mavericks held a 17-8 lead. They outscored the Spartans 20-6 in the second as Scobey captain Carrie Taylor was forced to take a seat on the bench with three fouls. North Country continued the clean play they have become known for, drawing only four infractions in the first half.

Scobey attempted a comeback after returning to the hardwood post-halftime, putting up 10 in the third while holding North Country to 9 points. The fourth quarter the Mavericks outpaced the Spartans 12-10 for the 58-34 victory.

Wasson was again the points leader, putting up 29 in the win. She added four rebounds, three assists and five steals to the books. Erickson dropped 19 points, pulled down four boards and took away four Scobey balls. Scheffelmear put up 6 points with five rebounds. K. Labrie hit a bucket and M. McColly sank a free throw.

The Mavericks shot 44.0 percent from the field and 55.6 percent at the charity stripe.

Scobey had 17 fouls in the game, while North Country held theirs to 11 calls. Erickson drew three whistles. K. LaBrie, M. McColly and Scheffelmear had two fouls each. S. LaBrie and Strommen had one call against each of them.

"The Lady Mavericks finished out the regular season 18-0 and Conference Champions. They had a great district tournament, continuing to take it one game at a time coming out District Champions and 20-0," said head coach Amber Erickson. "We plan to continue to work hard this extra week between divisionals on breaking our offenses down and fine tuning our defenses. We will open up the Divisionals on March 1 versus MonDak in Wolf Point ... The girls are playing amazing but have yet to reach their full potential so we are looking forward to the last few weeks of this special season!"

The Eastern C Divisional tournament will run Wednesday through Saturday, March 1-4, in Wolf Point. North Country will tip off against MonDak at 3 p.m., Wednesday, March 1.