Centerville basketball teams open with victories

SAND COULEE - Chris Daniel was hoping Cecilia Vielle might keep it in her bag of tricks just a little bit longer and not unveil it in the first game of the season.

But a basketball coach can’t be too greedy.

Vielle buried two 3-pointers in the third quarter, netting all 10 of her team’s points in the frame, to help spark the Centerville Miners girls’ basketball team past the visiting Winnett-Grass Range Rams 45-34 in a Class C opener here Saturday night.

“She stepped out and hit a couple threes, which is something she can do,” said Daniel, head coach of the Miners. “I kind of wanted to keep that secret for part of the year, but it’s out, I guess.”

The 6-foot-3 junior post scored a game-high 20 markers, including 16 after halftime, and converted on three triples.

Vielle said the Miners (1-0) have experience and “girls who know how to play.”

It’s a team, she added, that will be tough to handle as the year progresses.

“We did pretty well,” Vielle said. “We have some work that we have to do still, but it was good overall, good for a first game. All we can ask for is for a W.”

Are her teammates comfortable with Vielle stepping out on the perimeter and taking those shots?

“Oh god yeah,” senior guard Peyton Vining said, laughing. “We are comfortable with anywhere she takes it because we know that she’s great no matter where she is at.”

Vielle, as unselfish as a basketball player can get, handed out several accurate assists and notched a critical block of WGR standout Brynn Jolma down low with just over four minutes left, a shot that would have crept the Rams to within five.

“She does a pretty good job of figuring some things out,” Daniel said. “In that first half, they were really blanketing her with some defense and she was having to fight through a lot of stuff. We kind of told her to pick and choose her battles of when she’s going to try to get position and when not to.”

Often swarmed on in the post and double and triple teamed, Vielle doesn’t mind one bit taking a few moments to take a breath out toward the top of the key.

Trailing the play several times in transition, she found herself open with the ball in her hands. And she did not hesitate.

“I feel pretty confident in that shot,” Vielle said. “If that’s all they are going to give me, might as well go for it to help our team.”

Vining added 13 points. She is one of the many players who return off of last year’s team that made it all the way to the Northern C Divisional at Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls.

“I think we are going to be a good team,” Vining said. “We have a lot of returning talent. We are a really fast team this year. We may not be tall, but we’re aggressive, we’re fast, we know what we are doing. We’ve done it before. We should be good.”

After a deep jumper from Kendyl Chartier with 5:02 left in the first stanza, the Miners grabbed an 8-2 advantage.

Jolma and Taylor Stahl, though, helped Winnett-Grass Range stay in it.

A Jolma bucket with under a minute left in the first quarter got the Rams to within 14-12. Jolma and Stahl scored all 12 points for the Rams in the opening quarter and all but two of the team’s first-half field goals.

“It was a little sloppy,” Daniel said. “The first one’s are never pretty, never as perfect as you would like. You don’t really want to start off hitting on all cylinders either because that gives you nothing to work on. Winnett-Grass Range is a good team and they have some athletic kids, some kids that can play. It was a good test right off the bat.”

As the Miners went without a field goal for over five minutes of game action in the first half, the Rams pulled ahead.

A Stahl offensive rebound and put back plus a Jolma free throw soon after capped a 9-1 run to give the visitors a 17-14 cushion midway through the second stanza.

Vining, the cousin of Montana Tech standout Lukas Vining and C.M. Russell High sharpshooter Sam Vining, scored nine first-quarter points and a game-high 11 at halftime. Chartier and Vielle both canned treys in the final two minutes to lift the Miners to a 23-21 lead at intermission.

“I thought Peyton had a really good night,” Daniel said. “She ran the top of our 1-3-1 and got some steals, got down the floor and got a couple easy buckets. We kind of struggled shooting. We’ll go to work on that. Those kids are better shooters than that.”

Kendra Murnion opened the third quarter with a triple as the Rams took a 24-23 lead, but Vielle followed with a 10-2 run by herself to end the stanza, a frame in which the visitors managed just two field goals.

“We just really picked up our defense,” Vining said. “And we slowed down our offense so we could get the ball inside and get the shots that we needed instead of just going 100 miles per hour. We took our time and did what we needed to do.”

IN THE BOYS’ game, the Miners raced past Winnett-Grass Range 66-49.

Carson McGinness, a 6-foot freshman, tallied a team-high 18 markers, while Zane Stahl of WGR poured in a game-high 20.

“It was great to come out with the win,” Centerville head coach Todd Klasner said. “We are a really young team, so the finishing it at the end has got to get better and Winnett’s got a good team too. It was a good win for us coming out to start the year.”

Kade Landon scored 15, Brandon Travis 13 and Briggs Judd 10 as the Miners started the season 1-0. Last year, they went 5-15.

“We all played as a team,” Judd said. “We passed the ball. You look at the scoreboard and it shows 13, 10, 8, we’re all good, we’re all passing the ball, sharing it around. We look really good this year, really solid, like we can do something.”

Centerville led 32-23 at half, and pushed it out in the third quarter. With two minutes left, McGinness stole a pass under the WGR hoop and converted the layup plus the foul to extend the margin to 45-30. Sophomore Cooper Davis’ triple made it 50-32.

“I’m really excited (for this season),” Judd said. “I’m pumped. I just want to see how far we can get.”

Centerville girls 45, Winnett-Grass Range 34

WGR 12 9 5 8 – 34

Centerville 14 9 10 12 – 45

WGR – Sydney Browning 2 0-1 4, Brynn Jolma 4 3-4 11, Taylor Stahl 6 2-6 14, Kendra Murnion 1 0-0 3, Katie Zimmerman 1 0-0 2. Totals: 14 5-11.

Centerville – Kenadee Chartier 1 1-2 3, Kendyl Chartier 3 0-0 7, Peyton Vining 4 4-6 13, Makayla Paul 1 0-0 2, Cecilia Vielle 6 5-8 20. Totals: 15 10-16.

Total fouls – WGR 14, Centerville 8. Fouled out – none. 3-pointers – Murnion, Chartier, Vining, Vielle 3.

Centerville boys 66, Winnett-Grass Range 49

WGR 13 10 9 17 – 49

Centerville 18 14 18 16 – 66

WGR – Caden McCarthy 2 1-2 5, Zane Stahl 8 3-5 20, Connor Shaw 3 0-0 6, Jacob Jessen 5 0-0 11, Caleb Hess 1 2-3 4, Ryan Drollinger 1 1-2 3. Totals: 20 7-12.

Centerville – Carson McGinness 7 1-1 18, Kade Landon 6 3-5 15, Grant Cotton 1 0-0 3, Cooper Davis 1 0-0 3, Brandon Travis 5 1-2 13, Briggs Judd 4 1-3 10, Jadon Davis 1 0-0 2, Brock Landon 1 0-0 2. Totals: 26 6-11.

Total fouls – WGR 13, Centerville 17. Fouled out – none. 3-pointers – Stahl, Jessen, McGinness 3, Cotton, Cooper Davis, Travis 2, Judd 1.