Lady Trojans move to 5-0

The hot start to the season continued last week for the Whitehall High School girls basketball team. The Lady Trojans improved to 5-0 on the season winning their first two 5B District games of the season 56-47 over Three Forks and 44-36 against Boulder.

Following the Friday win over the defending state champion Lady Wolves, Whitehall head coach Kelly Nieskens talked about the importance of setting a tone for district play in their opener.

"We want to come out and be a good team, and to let everyone know we are a good team," he said.

The Lady Trojans were led in scoring in by Asha Noyes with 19. She also had an impressive defensive performance against returning all-state guard Kyle Olson.

Nieskens said it was great to see a strong game from Noyes on both offense and defense.

"She showed glimpses of this last year. She will go for four-minute periods where no one can stop her and she's stopping everyone. Tonight the way she played defense is great. She took some pride in her defense and she did a great job on Olson," Nieskens said.

Eighth grader Jada Clarkson also had a huge night for Whitehall who led 26-25 at half and outscored Three Forks 30-21 in the second half.

Nieskens said Clarkson came up big when the team ran into foul trouble and kept them in the game. She finished with 16 points.

Freshman Brynna Wolfe added 14 for Whitehall.

Nieskens also praised the defense of sophomore Meagan Johnson.

"Meagan is like a fly. Her job is to go out there and annoy guards and she does a great job of making them have to work," he said. "When you make them have to go up against a full court defense the whole game that gets wearing. We have the girls that love to play way and it is definitely a strength for us."

The Lady Trojans used a strong second half performance Saturday on the road erasing an seven point halftime lead. In the final quarter, Whitehall outscored the Lady Panthers 13-2.

It was another huge game for Noyes who once again had 19 points. Wolfe added 12, Clarkson had six, Kendra Klapan added four, Johnson had two and eighth grader Maxine Hoagland finished with one point.

Whitehall will wrap up the 2018 portion of their schedule Thursday when they travel for a matchup against Big Timber.

"We've got a lot of things to work on, but it was good to set a tone for conference and have a base to work from," Nieskens said.