One to go.
On the back of a tenacious, suffocating defense, the Jefferson High girls basketball squad cruised into the Class B state championship final, thumping traditional power Malta, 43-33, Saturday afternoon in Bozeman.
It’s the first time in school history that the Lady Panthers have made it to a state final. They did it by dismantling the number-one seed from the north division, a day after outgunning the top seed from the west, Bigfork High.
“It’s pretty surreal,” said coach Sarah Layng after the game. “This has been a dream forever.” Layng’s father, Dick Norden, coached Jefferson’s boys team to the school’s last state hoops title, in 1984. Layng was in grade school then.
There’s little question that Jefferson belongs in the title game. Last summer, as the team took shape, “I knew we could be in the championship,” Layng said. The team spent much of this season at the top of the Class B rankings. Now, after a near-catastrophic divisional tournament where they barely emerged with third place, the Lady Panthers are playing with confidence and joy — and their first two games at Montana State University’s Brick Breeden Fieldhouse have been their best overall performances of the year.
Where their opening-round victory over Bigfork was determined by quickness and Rachel Van Blaricom’s dominating 35-point spree, the semifinal was all about defense. The Panthers pressed often, stayed tight on the M-ettes on the perimeter, and stopped up the lane.
“Yeah,” said Van Blaricom, “we didn’t give them much inside, did we?” Jefferson scored 15 points off Malta turnovers, including 11 on fast breaks. The M-ettes had no fast break points.
Malta was tough on defense, as well. Van Blaricom had no easy access to layups and short jumpers, as she did on Friday. But she still came away with 19 points — and senior Brynna Wolfe played a bruising game at guard, drawing frequent fouls as she crashed through traffic (and, more than once, crashed to the floor). She scored 16, six of those on free throws.
Without easy paths to the basket, Jefferson shot more often from the perimeter. Van Blaricom and Wolfe nailed two three-pointers each, and Cia Stuber and MacKenzie Layng each swished one.
Jefferson will take on Colstrip in the tournament final at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. The Lady Panthers handed the Fillies their only defeat of the season, a 53-49 nailbiter at the Red Lodge preseason tournament in December. Since then, Colstrip has won 22 straight, including a 62-34 rout of Harlem in the semifinals.
Are the Panthers ready? “I can’t wait,” said Stuber. “There’s no way to describe how excited I am.” Added Wolfe: “This is what people look forward to their whole lives.”
