GREAT FALLS — After having Class C's longest-ever winning streak snapped at 73 games in their district championship game, the North Country girls rallied to win a third straight state basketball championship Saturday night in Butte.
"It meant a lot just because with what we lost," senior Shelbi LaBrie said following the 53-47 state championship win over Roy-Winifred. "The other two almost felt expected, though they weren't. In this one, I felt like we had to work for it. I mean, we worked for the others, too, but closer games, and we just had to work a little harder for it."
"We had some big roles to fill," junior CharLee McColly said. "Our underclassmen and our other teammates that really just stepped up in practice and took on the job like it was nothing. We worked together super hard in practice every day and came after it every game."
"It's great, the past couple of years we've made it to state we've won state," junior BaiLee McColly said. "This year it's even more special for me because I was a big part of that, and I got to be a part of that win."
"To do it three times in a row is unbelievable," head coach Amber Erickson said. "I never would have dreamt it."
LaBrie and both of the McCollys were big reasons that the Mavericks were able to once again finish on top of Class C.
North Country, a co-op of Saco, Whitewater and Hinsdale, ended the year 25-1, with the aforementioned district championship loss to Scobey being the one game dropped the entire season. While that may have ended the win streak, Erickson said she felt it was needed to help the Mavericks finish No. 1 once again.
"That night Scobey was better than us," Erickson said. "They're a good team. Had they not beat us at districts, I don't know if we'd have beat them at divisionals. Like we match up with them so well that at some point they were going to get us, and so I think that we just really took it to heart, and we said, 'Hey, they were better and we need to get better.'"
Erickson also emphasized how hard it is to not only make it to state, but to win a title — and, at that, three consecutive championships.
"There are teams that never get to state, and now in our communities and on our teams it's just expected because it's happened so much," Erickson said. "Sometimes I think we take it for granted, and you kind of get like, 'Oh, we're going to state again,' but it's a big deal. And I try to make the girls know every single time that, hey, you earn this."
