by Scott Sacry
The Florence girls are the #3 seed out of the Western B Division and will face Malta, the #1 seed out of the Northern B Division, on Thursday, March 7th at 10:30 a.m. at the MetraPark in Billings. Missoula Loyola and Huntley Project are the other two teams on Florence’s side of the bracket.
The Malta M-ettes have a strong tradition of basketball excellence and have won numerous State Championships. The M-ettes are 16-7 this year and defeated Poplar 47-40 on March 2nd to win the Northern B Division. At this point in the season every team is tough and Malta is one of the toughest.
Florence’s first year head coach Shane Meinhold said of Malta, “Coach Hammond always has his girls ready to play. What makes them dangerous is how fundamentally sound they are. They really control the halfcourt game and hit the boards. Their post play is strong, so it’s important that we don’t let them control the boards. They have some shooters so we have to know where they are at.”
Meinhold continued, “Defensively they get after it. They have some quickness on the outside and are physical on the inside. Another thing that drives them is tradition; they have had long runs of success and are always a dangerous team at tournament time.”
Florence has a young group of girls this year with only two seniors and one junior – the rest are sophomores and freshmen. “As a first-year head coach,” said Meinhold, “there definitely was a feeling out period between coach and player as far as trust.”
Coach Meinhold outlined the keys to success for the Falcons at state. “The key for us is just to play the way we know how and have the girls execute their roles in the team. We have all the faith in the world in our girls, they are a great group that are fun to be around everyday. Our girls need to put everything on the line and give everything they have. We’re excited for the opportunity to go make some noise in Billings.”
Meinhold is optimistic about Florence’s chances at State. “We’ve reached our team goal this season of getting to State and now we are setting a new team goal of bringing home some hardware. Go, Falcons!”
See the State Class B girls bracket here: