Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

Basketball is meant to be fun, Hot Springs girls coach Richard Jackson says, and he sometimes feels the need to remind his players of that.

"You should enjoy it, win or lose," Jackson said earlier this week. "If you are not having fun playing, what is the point? I have to remind the girls about that sometimes so they won't forget."

Using that barometer for success, the Savage Heat girls had fun twice last week, falling 42-33 to St. Regis in Hot Springs and 56-29 to Charlo in Charlo Friday.

Into the heart of the conference schedule, the Heat have two more District 14C games on tap this week, at Arlee Thursday and against Two Eagle River in Pablo Friday.

St. Regis took control of Thursday's game early, building a lead of 14-8 after one quarter and extending the advantage to 26-10 by halftime.

McKennzie Cannon led the Heat with six points in that game, Sydney and Sage Jackson scored five each, Stacy and Brianna Gray four apiece, and Lizzy Fisher and Lexi DeTienne two each.

Justice Tate and Kylee Thompson bucketed 13 points apiece to pace St. Regis, Madison elly added nine, Emma Hill eight and Anna Sanford seven.

A fast start by Charlo also proved fatal to Hot Springs' chances of victory in Charlo as the Lady Vikings roared out to a 12-2 lead after one quarter and moved to the win.

Sydney Jackson scored 12 points to lead Hot Springs, Stacy Gray chipped in with 11, DeTienne four, Sage Jackson three and Cannon two.

Kaitlin Cox scored 13 points for Charlo and Sakoya Gaustad 12.

Although he doesn't like losing, Jackson knows his team is young, and is still a work in progress.

"We are awfully young but getting better all the time," he said. "We have some things we need to work on – turnovers and free throw shooting for example – but those things will come with time.

"We just want to be playing our best when the tournaments roll around," he added. "That's our goal."