Whitehall takes down Manhattan, Twin Bridges

The Whitehall High School girls basketball team moved to 7-1 on the season with two road wins last week. The Lady Trojans defeated Manhattan 52-51 Thursday and 67-38 win Friday at Twin Bridges.

Whitehall would start strong at the Lady Tigers taking a 25-13 lead at the half and a 40-28 lead into the final quarter.

"Against Manhattan, we were able to come out and play our way for 3 quarters. One of our goals that we need to work harder on is putting teams away. We almost let that win get away from us which is not the plan we had headed into the fourth. We just need to clamp down and not allow teams back into the game," said Head Coach Kelly Nieskens.

The Lady Trojans had eight players score against Manhattan with Jada Clarkson leading the way with 13 points. Brynna Wolfe added 10, Kendra Klapan had nine, Meagan Johnson finished with eight, Maxine Hoagland and Asha Noyes each had four, and Ashlynn Ellison and Britney Welker added two points.

Nieskens said in the Friday matchup against the Falcons the team started out slow and didn't play Lady Trojan basketball.

"We made some changes at half and just took over the game on both ends of the court as we should," Nieskens said.

Whitehall (7-1, 4-0 5B) will return home this week for a matchup Thursday against Townsend and a Saturday battle with top-ranked and undefeated Missoula Loyola.

"It's always nice to play at home in front of our fans and on our court. We have two big games for us this week that will require us to really focus on our style of basketball and play more physical. This week we won't focus as much on playing faster but more efficient," Nieskens said.