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Welcome back coach!

Playing for Ryan Weltz, in his latest reincarnation as a Noxon hoops coach, only this time as the head man for the Lady Red Devils, the Noxon girls split games in the Western C Tip-Off tourney in Frenchtown last week, falling 51-38 to Darby Friday and bouncing back for a 50-18 win over Victor Saturday.

The 1-1 Lady Devils will entertain St. Regis Friday in their only scheduled game later this week. The Devils were to have traveled to Clark Fork, Idaho, Tuesday, but results of that game were not available at press time.

Weltz enjoyed his first games back as head coach last week, although he has been no stranger to the sidelines over the last several years as an assistant coach for both the boys and girls.

"It was fun to be back out there," he said. "The girls played hard, we were a little rag-tag at times and hit some cold streaks shooting the ball, but our effort was good, and we will move on from here."

The fact that the Devils played competitive basketball without one of their best players – senior Kristina Brown did not have the required number of practices in – can only bode well for Noxon hoop futures.

"If we keep working at it, I think we are going to be a pretty tough out for other teams," Weltz said. "And we are going to need to come out to play every night, there will be no easy games in our conference this season."

Weltz said Darby threw pressure defense at the Lady Devils Friday and were able to take advantage of the helter skelter they created. "Their pressure bothered us," he said, "but, on the other hand, we learned a ton about ourselves that night."

Delaney Weltz and Chelsey Vohs led the Devils with six points each against Darby, Kali Murray scored five, Madi Koonce, Rachel Ehinger and Vanessa Horner scored three apiece, and Avery Burgess two.

Casey Ehmann led Darby with 14 points and Kimber Schlapman added eight.

The Devils blew the game with Victor wide open with a 15-0 run in the second quarter.

Weltz scored an amazing 28 points to pace the Noxon win, Vohs and Ehinger added six apiece, Murray five, Koonce three and Horner two.

Ashley Hopper scored nine points to lead Victor.