by Scott Sacry
The 2024-2025 high school basketball season is underway in the Bitterroot Valley as teams began play last week.
Class A schools Corvallis, Hamilton and Stevensville are in the Southwest A conference. Class B Florence and Darby are in the 6B conference. This will be Darby’s second year in Class B, having moved up from Class C last year for all sports except football. And Class C Victor is in the 13C conference.
All of these teams, besides Stevensville and Hamilton, had games last week.
Corvallis
The Blue Devil basketball teams opened their season against Class B juggernaut Missoula Loyola on Saturday, December 7.
The Corvallis boys went to Missoula and faced arguably one of the best basketball teams in the state for any classification, winners of the last two Class B state championships. Loyola defeated the Blue Devils 95-36. The Corvallis girls hosted Loyola and fell 28-62.
Florence
The Falcon boys and girls basketball teams opened their season at Thompson Falls on Friday, Dec. 6th. The Florence girls won handily, 73-42, while the boys fell in a close game, 57-58.
The Florence girls had a balanced attack. Kenzy Pickering led the way with 13 points, followed by Emory Ralston with 12, Jaden Fisher 10, Kendyl Meinhold and Maggie Schneiter each had 8, Ali Meinhold and Shelby Crocker both had 6, Madigan Hurlbert had 4, Taylor Pyette had 3, Alex Nelson had 2, and Alyx Monaco added 1.