This is where the road ended: Saturday night at the Brick Breeden Field House at Montana State University in Bozeman. On one side, a sea of purple: Hundreds of Panther fans who had made their way from Jefferson County. On the other, a field of green: The Fillies faithful from Colstrip, four hours east.
Two small-town schools, with their small towns along for the ride. There were two cheerleading squads. Two pep bands. Two very loud, often edgy student sections. And one oversized, high-fiving panther with some startlingly serious dance moves.
Saturday night at State—the Class B basketball championship. For 38 years, Jefferson High teams and their supporters had spent this evening at home, gearing up for spring sports, while other schools basked in the pageantry, the electricity, the noise.
Now, it was their turn: Jefferson’s Lady Panthers, a special group of talented, gritty, tail-busting kids, were playing for the state title.
Were they ready?
“I can’t wait,” said Cia Stuber, a gentle senior with a mean long-range shot, before the game. “There’s no way to describe how excited I am.” Brynna Wolfe, the tough-as-nails, three-time All-State guard who transferred to Jefferson this year from Whitehall, added: “This is what people look forward to their whole lives.”
You could see this moment coming. You could see it three years ago, when a talented freshman named Rachel Van Blaricom basically took charge of the girls’ squad, and her classmate Dakota Edmisten, a wisp of a kid, began sinking long threes off the bench. Stuber arrived the following year, and Wolfe’s entrance completed the picture.
Last summer, as the team took shape, “I knew we could be in the championship,” said Sarah Layng, in her third season as coach. “It felt like it was ours for the taking.” In their summer league, the girls went 16-2—and the losses were both by just three points.
The Panthers laid down the gauntlet in December at the Red Lodge pre-season tournament, with wins over Columbus and Colstrip, both tough teams. Then they cruised through the regular season, losing just once, to conference rival Sweet Grass County.
Then came the near-catastrophic South Division tournament. After easily besting Lodge Grass, the Panthers met up with Columbus in the semifinals. Columbus, the team they had taken in December. A team they should have beaten again.
But they didn’t. As Dan Sturdevant wrote in this paper: “This one is tough to talk about.” Jefferson went 12 minutes in the third and fourth quarters without scoring—and Columbus took the upset win, 38-34.
“It was so deflating,” Layng said later. “But I told them: You’re going to have heartbreaking moments, and you have to push them aside. I said, you can’t dwell on it. You still have a chance.”
That night, in their hotel room in Billings, the four seniors started yelling. “We were all really mad,” Van Blaricom said. Added Stuber: “We knew we had to get the anger out.” So they yelled — at themselves, at Columbus, and at the %#&* arbitrariness of shots that didn’t drop. They yelled until midnight—and then, with the bile out of their systems, they stayed up to 1 a.m., just having fun.
The next day, they needed two wins in the consolation bracket to survive for State. The first was pretty straightforward: The Panthers took down Huntley Project, 73-62. The second—well, that was another story. It was Lodge Grass again. But there was no easy win this time. Once again, Jefferson hit a dry spell—and found itself down 31-12 at the half. That’s a lot.
The girls were exhausted. But they weren’t done. They started hitting shots, and the Indians’ big lead started narrowing. Sophomore MacKenzie Layng, the coach’s kid, nailed four 3-pointers. Stuber was surprised to look up at the scoreboard, midway through the fourth quarter, and see the margin was down to seven. “We were relaxed,” said Van Blaricom. “We had nothing to lose, and we just played the way we know how.”
The Panthers finally caught up, and the game went to overtime. And then, with just seconds left in the extra period, came the miracle. Wolfe was on the floor, trapped by two Lodge Grass defenders. Van Blaricom swept around and took the ball, then bounced a pass to Stuber. Stuber flipped it to junior guard Izzy Morris, who buried a 3-pointer—her only basket of the game—to seal the win. Pandemonium. (You can find the video on 406MTsports.com. It’s a classic.)
At practice the following week, the girls looked loose. Just another practice, same drills as ever. Theirs would be the Lady Panthers’ first appearance at State since 1995. But if they felt pressure, they weren’t showing it. “We’re stoked,” Van Blaricom said.
The next weekend would, of course, be Van Blaricom’s last in a Jefferson uniform. Over four years, the Lady Panthers have become a much stronger team—but she’s still been the key. Over that time, she has scored 1,328 points, a school career record. She’s been named All-State three times. And she’s been the team’s top motivator, jokester, and leader.
It’s also the last Jefferson hurrah for her mom and dad, Desiree and Clint Van Blaricom, and for the other seniors’ parents. Years of getting their daughters to and from practices, of nearly endless travel to school and club games, summer leagues, all-star tournaments, of bonding with other families, was coming to a close. “I truly love these girls, and all the parents, the community,” said Desiree Van Blaricom. “I’m sad to lose that love and connection that’s grown throughout the years.
“But we know how much hard work they’ve all put in—and to realize their dream of going to State, I’m feeling just so overwhelmed with…” she trailed off. “Just so proud.”
***
In their first-round game at State, Thursday morning, the Panthers faced Bigfork. The Valkyries came into Bozeman 21-1 on the season and ranked number two in Montana by MaxPreps. They were a big team, 2 inches taller than the Panthers at most positions.
But “their size didn’t bother us,” as Stuber said afterward. Jefferson’s defense routinely closed up the lane to Bigfork’s guards. Junior forward Austie May is just 5 feet, 9 inches tall, but she’s formidable under the basket, and the Panthers actually out-rebounded the bigger Valkyries, 30-26.
And at the other end, quickness beat size. Wolfe and Morris handled the Valyrie press. The Panthers’ passing was crisp and mostly on target. And Van Blaricom did pretty much as she pleased, routinely shredding the Valkyrie defense for layups and short jumpers.
She scored 35—but the Panthers’ 61-55 victory was, in fact, a complete team effort. “Probably their best game all season,” said Layng afterwards. Added Wolfe: “This is the team we’ve wanted to become all year.”
Then came the semifinals and Malta, a perennial Class B power. Where the Bigfork game had been decided by the Panthers’ quickness, this one was all about defense. The Panthers pressed often, stayed tight on the Mustangs on the perimeter, and stopped up the lane.
“Yeah, we didn’t give them much inside, did we?” Van Blaricom said. Jefferson scored 15 points off Malta turnovers, including 11 on fast breaks. The Mustangs 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 Thursday. But she still came away with 19 points—and Wolfe played a bruising game at guard, drawing frequent fouls as she crashed through traffic (and, more than once, crashed to the ground). She scored 16 points, 6 of those on free throws.
Jefferson 43, Malta 33. And just like that, the Panthers were in the state title game.
For Layng, the moment felt “pretty surreal.” Layng’s father, Dick Norden, who was sitting amid the purple sea at Brick Breeden, coached Jefferson’s boys team to the school’s last state title, in 1984. Layng was in grade school then. She later starred herself, playing on the 1990 Lady Panthers team that made it to State. And she coached at Class C Sheridan High before coming to Jefferson.
And now, the State final. “This,” Layng said, “has been a dream forever.”
The Panthers knew all about Colstrip, their opponents for the championship. They had played in December, after all, and Layng had watched plenty of video since. Colstrip’s top guards Malea Egan and Bailey Egan could match Jefferson’s speed and ball-handling skills. Its 6-foot senior, Canzas HisBadHorse, was quick and skilled. There was a reason they were the top-ranked team in Montana.
And in the end, this wouldn’t be the shimmering finale the Panthers had hoped for. The Fillies’ defense was the toughest Jefferson had encountered. Every drive by Van Blaricom and Wolfe into the lane was a battle, and the outside shots weren’t falling: The Panthers went 3 for 20 from behind the arc. Meanwhile, HisBadHorse dominated inside, scoring 25 points off lob passes and offensive rebounds.
The girls scrapped and battled. When the Panthers narrowed what had been a 14-point deficit to just 7 points with three minutes left, Jefferson’s student section roared, hoping for yet one more game-ending rush.
But there was no miracle this time. Colstrip called time, quickly regained control, and finally put a lid on Jefferson’s dreams.
The Lady Panthers were left to accept the second-place plaque—perhaps the hardest thing in sports—to watch as the Fillies and their coaches did a victory dance at center court, and to content themselves with a magical season that came up just short.
Tears were shed. Some of the girls could barely hold it in for the team photo. Edmisten, maybe the toughest of the tough Panthers, signaled for her mother, Addie, to come down from the stands; they embraced in the aisle behind the team benches. In an area off the court, as the team emerged from the locker room one last time, players hugged friends and family members.
What was said in that locker room? “I told them how proud I was of them,” Layng said. “They’ve battled through so many highs and lows. And tonight, they left it all out on the court.”
Van Blaricom was proud, too. “This is the first time we’ve made it to the State finals,” she said. As almost always, she was smiling. “And we’re second in the state. That’s nothing to hang our heads about.”
