MISSOULA — After falling short of high expectations last season, the Missoula Big Sky girls basketball team entered this season with a simple mindset.
“We wanted to come back and prove a point, because last year we got to state and kind of fell short, obviously," senior Kadynce Couture said, reflecting on the 2023-24 season that saw Big Sky go 16-2 in the regular season and then lose out in three games at the state tournament.
"And so this year we wanted to come back and prove that we can make it through the regular season and we can also make it through the postseason," Couture continued.
The Eagles did just that, securing the Western AA’s No. 1 seed and automatic berth in the state tournament, which tips off Thursday at Worthington Arena in Bozeman. Big Sky will play Bozeman in a first-round game at 8 p.m.
Couture will be playing at her future home, as she's committed to continue her playing career at Montana State University. This season, the versatile forward is leading the Eagles with 15.4 points, 11.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 3.9 steals per game.
“Being able to just come here and practice and work together hard, not having to go on the road has been nice," Couture said. "I do miss divisionals just because it's a chance to be with your team, but no, it's nice to lock up the number one seed."
“It's nice when we get to have the bye," echoed guard Avory DeCoite. "I think we're not really taking it as a bye. And we have to still focus, because even though it's just a bye, it's just one game off and we have to be focused when we come into state.”
DeCoite has given Big Sky a boost the past three games, having just returned to action after tearing her ACL in the summer.
She also missed last year's state tournament with an injury after averaging 13.5 points per game in the regular season. This year, she's played in three games
“I think the biggest thing is just getting to celebrate my teammates on the court and be with them through those moments and not from a distance," DeCoite said. "But I feel like we're on a roll right now, so I feel like it's going pretty good.”
The Eagles will enter the state tournament riding a six-game winning streak, a surge that started thanks to the team rallying together after a mid-season slump.
“We wanted to stay positive, so that's one big thing," Couture said of how the team rebounded from a three-game losing streak in the middle of the season. "We wrote each other note cards before games just saying, like, positive things to each other we can do better, and that started after our losing streak.
"And we knew that we had to play our best in March, and so that's what our goal was.”
