BUTTE — The Bigfork girls basketball team wasted no time winning a championship in its return to Class A.
The Valkyries, last season's Class B state champs who moved up a classification prior to this academic year, got 17 points from Braeden Gunlock and 11 more from Ava Davey on the way to a 41-29 victory over Frenchtown in the title game of the Western A divisional tournament Saturday at the Civic Center.
Bigfork put the clamps on Frenchtown in the second and third quarters, limiting the Broncs to just seven points combined in that 16-minute stretch. The Vals outscored Frenchtown 18-7 combined in the middle quarters.
The Frenchtown tandem of Mason Quinn and Madi Kaufman, typically a formidable duo and a high-scoring combo throughout the tourney, were held to just nine points combined on 2-for-15 shooting.
Sadie Smith led the Broncs, who are still headed to the state tourney, with a double double of 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Both teams struggled from the floor: Bigfork shot 24% while Frenchtown hit just 26% of its shots. The Valkyries did make 18 of 23 free throws to the Broncs' 9 of 19 performance.
In the third-place game, Kenleigh Graham had 13 points and eight rebounds and Sydney Peterson added 12 points as Dillon ran away from Browning in the fourth quarter for a 49-38 victory.
The Beavers outscored Browning 20-7 in the final eight minutes. Halle Fitzgerald scored nine points in Dillon's win. Jerel White Grass had nine points and seven rebounds for Browning while teammate Teslin Trombley had seven points.
Saturday's loser-out scores
Dillon 69, Ronan 33
Browning 55, Columbia Falls 50
