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It was a fabulous first week of the season for the Three Forks High School Girls’ Basketball team.
After opening the year with a road win on December 5 over West Yellowstone and victories at the Shelby Tournament against Fairfield and Cut Bank, the Wolves started their home season Monday night with an impressive 52-49 win over Manhattan Christian.
Following the December 11 win over the Eagles, Three Forks Head Coach Lacy Noble said that if teams force them to shoot three-pointers on offense, they will, and the Wolves did just that. Three Forks nailed nine three-pointers, including four from Maddie Tesoro and Tanaya Hauser and another key triple from Bella Jones.
After the Wolves took their biggest lead of the game, 49-36, in the final quarter, Manhattan Christian would answer back with an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 49-44 before Hauser hit a huge three with 1:14 left.
“We knew it would be an outside game. I thought they did well from the outside. Nine threes, I’ll take it,” said Noble. “Every game we play, we get better. We figure each other out a little better.”
Tesoro led the team in scoring with 21, Hauser had 12, Devynn Judd and Ada Rae Thomas finished with eight, and Jones added three points.
Along with the sharp shooting from the outside, Noble said Judd and Thomas both had critical minutes for the Wolves.
WEST YELLOWSTONE/SHELBY TOURNEY
Three Forks started the season with a 55-38 road win on December 5 at West Yellowstone.
With the game tied at 26 at the half, the Wolves outscored the Wolverines 29-14 in the second half to come away with the win.
Hauser and Tesoro led the team in scoring, with both netting 14 points. Fallon Page finished with seven, Hailey Williams and Judd finished with six, Maya Noble had five, Thomas added two, and Tycie Davis finished with one point.
The Wolves opened last week’s tournament at Shelby with an impressive 45-35 win over Fairfield, outscoring the Eagles 26-16 in the second half to pick up the double-digit victory.
Thomas led the team in scoring with 14, Hauser finished with 11, and Tesoro was also in double figures with 10. Judd finished with six, and Noble and Kylee Reichman had two points.
Three Forks wrapped up the Shelby Tournament on December 9 with a 51-31 win over Cut Bank.
Tesoro led the way with 13, and Hauser also finished in double figures with 11. Thomas finished with eight, Judd had six, Noble had four, Page and Zandra Potts finished with three points. Reichman finished with two points, and Jones had one.
Coach Noble said it has been an awesome start to the season, and the girls are working incredibly hard in practice.
“These wins really show the girls how that hard work will continue to pay off. Our offense has been paced by Tanaya and Maddie, but the defensive side has been led by Fallon and Bella. I don’t think defensive specialists get the credit they deserve in basketball, and Fallon and Bella have been able to put pressure on teams and create turnovers that turn into points,” said Noble. “This last weekend has given us a lot of positives to build on and show where we need to focus in practice. I think our full-court pressure will continue to get better as the season progresses, and we will work on a little more offensive patience.”
The Wolves will return to action on December 14 with a conference road game at Jefferson (Boulder). The team will open the conference home season on December 16 against Ennis.
“We will ride the waves of the wins going into the first conference game. Jefferson is probably the top team in our conference, so we’ll get a little taste of the Southern 5B. It will be good to see where we are matching up with our conference,” Noble said.
