Lady Trojans get third shot at rival Boulder

The Whitehall High School girls basketball shouldn't need much motivation when they open the Southern 5B District Tournament Thursday at the Belgrade Events Center.

The fifth seeded Lady Trojans are set to face rival and fourth seeded Boulder Thursday night at 6 p.m.

It will be the third matchup of the year between the two squads, with the Lady Panthers picking up a 47-35 win at home, and a 34-23 win in Varsity Gym.

Whitehall head coach Herman Gerving believes his team matches up with Boulder well, but said they need to come out of the gates strong.

Gerving said they came out flat in the game in Boulder, and struggled with both shooting and missing senior guard Kaya Welch at the game in Whitehall. He said they really need to not give up an early lead, and hopefully they can shoot the ball well unlike the first two matchups.

Whitehall (6-12, 2-8 Southern 5B) wrapped up their regular season Friday night at home with a 52-35 loss to Townsend.

The Lady Bulldogs came out strong and took a 16-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. Gerving said his team missed too many open shots and Townsend was able to go on several long scoring runs.

After cutting the lead to 27-15 at half, Whitehall would come out strong in the third quarter and a 5-0 run pulled them to within seven with five minutes left in the quarter. Gerving said after this point they could not stop another key Townsend run and did not do a good job rebounding.

Playing in her last game in Varsity Gym, Welch led the team with 15 points. Senior Mesquite Melton had six, senior Rachel Smith had five, Dorothy Mastel added three, and senior Bryn Welker, Allee Scafani, and Isabel Evans each had two points.