HAMILTON — The Missoula Loyola girls basketball team lost to rival Florence back on Jan. 25.
The Breakers haven't lost since, running roughshod over first District 6B and now the Western B, claiming the divisional championship Saturday with a 68-43 win over the Falcons on Dale Berry Court at Hamilton High School.
"Losing to our rival is never fun, and the Loyola-Florence rivalry is really epic, everybody knows that, so when we lost in overtime, it wasn’t good," Loyola senior Addie Nault said after the championship win.
"But we went in on Monday after that loss, and we put our heads down and we said, 'We are the better team, we’re going to go get them the next times we play them.' And we’ve done that ever since."
In the 10 wins since that loss, Loyola has flipped the switch on defense and did so again in Saturday's championship, holding Florence without a field goal for the first 12 minutes of the game. The Breakers built an 11-0 lead before the Falcons finally got on the board on two free throws from Kendyl Meinhold.
Loyola led 20-3 at end of the first quarter and grew the lead to 28-6 midway through the second quarter before Florence finally made a field goal — a runner from Meinhold.
"It’s amazing just to look around and know that we can be that good on the defensive end and that they weren’t even making shots; they were making free throws," Nault said. "They were only getting points when they were going to the line, so we told each other that we had to stop fouling so that they wouldn’t get points. … That goes to show how hard we work on defense."
Loyola led 36-13 at halftime, rendering the second half largely academic. The Breakers led 53-28 going to the fourth quarter.
Star sophomore Spencer Laird scored 31 points to lead Loyola, 18 of her points coming in the first half. She scored 10 more in the third quarter.
"Our coach (Aaron Ward) said it during halftime. He was like, ‘You know, she’s a big target. It makes it really easy,'" senior guard Drew Lamb said. "She’s so good at reading defense and getting the right seal, so it makes it real easy for us to get her the ball. She’s the best, and she’s a great shooter. She can take it down the court, she can post up, she can do it all. She’s great."
Nault added 14 points for the Breakers and Lamb had nine, while Florence was led by Emory Ralston with nine points.
The Breakers (19-3) will take the West's No. 1 seed into a highly anticipated Class B state tournament, which will be played March 13-15 at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula.
"I think it’s going to be super competitive," Lamb said. "I think it’s going to be a really high-level play of basketball. I think it’s going to be really fast-paced.
"You’ve got really great teams coming from the east. The O’Connor girls (Madison and Avery at Baker) and Paige Lofing (at Huntley Project), they’re obviously a force. Definitely got to watch out for them, but I think it’s going to be a great time. I think it’s going to be really fun, and having it in Missoula is going to be great."
Florence (19-4) will also advance to the state tournament, as the Falcons cannot be challenged by third-place winner St. Ignatius.
St. Ignatius defeated Thompson Falls 56-34 in the consolation final, but the Bulldogs lost to Florence 56-39 in a semifinal on Friday.
