MIDLAND ROUNDTABLE MONTANA-WYOMING ALL-STAR BASKETBALL SERIES
Teagan Erickson and Paige Wasson haven’t felt the anguish of losing a basketball game they’ve played in together for awhile now.
Since March 11, 2022, to be exact, for the former Saco-Whitewater-Hinsdale girls hoops teammates.
That day, the Mavericks were defeated by Box Elder in the semifinals of the Class C girls basketball state tournament en route to the North Country co-op eventually securing third place at Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls. What followed was one of the most dominant multiyear runs by any team ever in Montana high school basketball history.
Saco-Whitewater-Hinsdale, with Erickson, Wasson and other key pieces doing damage all over the court, won 54-consecutive games from 2022-24 to tie the fourth-longest streak in the state’s girls hoops history — a stretch which included back to-back 26-0 seasons in 2022-23 and 2023-24 with each ending in Class C state championships.
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And this weekend, Saco’s Erickson and Whitewater’s Wasson will team up again to try and help another stretch of dominance continue by way of the Montana girls team’s recent win streak in the annual Midland Roundtable Montana-Wyoming All-Star Basketball Series.
Despite hailing from two of the smallest schools under the Montana High School Association’s umbrella — Saco had 14 students and Whitewater 10 in the MHSA’s fall enrollment numbers for 2023-24 — Erickson and Wasson were each deserved selections to Team Montana in this year’s two game series. This year’s twin bill of games tips off at 5 p.m. Friday at the Pronghorn Center in Gillette, Wyoming, before shifting to Lockwood High School for the Montana leg at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Big Sky Country’s girls squad has won 13 games in a row in the series over their southern neighbors and leads the all-time series 39-13. Erickson and Wasson, part of a strong Class C contingent on the girls roster, don’t plan on letting a Wyoming win this weekend come easily, either.
“This team this year is super versatile, and we’re just hard workers and a super-talented team,” Erickson said. “(We’re) going to take our best talent from Montana and bring it to Wyoming and just try our best to keep that streak, and I have a lot of faith in this.”
“Everybody’s learning everybody’s name and giving high fives out; (we’re) just building our team chemistry slowly,” Wasson said. “(We’ll) just work together, trust in each other and just play hard. … We’re really going to try to lock down (on defense) and then offense will just come to us.”
All 10 members of Montana’s girls All-Star team this year are signed to play basketball in college, and that’s even without two time Gatorade Player of the Year and ex-Billings Skyview standout Breanna Williams, who is traveling with Maryland’s women’s basketball team on an 11-day exhibition tour across Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro this summer.
Erickson, a 6-foot-2 guard/ forward, is signed with Montana State, where she’ll link up with fellow future Bobcat Taylee Chirrick of Roberts this weekend on Team Montana’s roster. Wasson, a 5-11 guard, is going to Rocky Mountain College, in which another soon-to-be Battlin’ Bear in Roy-Winifred’s Isabelle Heggem will play with her this weekend as part of the team coached in the two-fer by Rocky women’s hoops coach Wes Keller.
With each getting their own previews of college hoops in their own ways this week, Erickson and Wasson are especially happy that they get to experience them together on the same squad once again.
“They only select 10 girls from the entire state, all classes,” Erickson said. “So to come from a small school and get to play in such a big game and play with some great players, it’s just a huge honor, for sure. … Getting to play one last game with (Paige) and share that moment with her on a good team, it means a lot.”
“I don’t know how many kids from our co-op or my school actually have made it to play in the Montana All-Star game, so it’s a pretty cool experience,” Wasson said. “(Teagan’s) going to Montana State and that’s pretty cool, I’m so happy for her. So it’s really amazing to get to experience my whole basketball career with her, and this is our one last hurrah and it’s going to be so much fun.”
Erickson and Wasson, along with Billings West’s Kourtney Grossman and Halle Haber, will be the only pairs of high school teammates playing together on Montana’s all-star team, boys or girls. And with that achievement being so rare, it further drives the point home that North Country’s dynasty was one for the ages in Montana hoops lore.
Friday and Saturday, those magnificent former Mavericks can add one more notch to their legacies together.
“You kind of always dread to have played (against) them because they’re such good players, and now that you get to be on the same team, it’s just going to be a blast and I’m super excited,” Erickson said.
“It’s pretty cool to be teammates with them for one game of the year and get to know them better and be friends with them,” Wasson said. “You just make friendships from the games (and) playing them, so it’s cool to see new faces and make new friends.”
Email Briar Napier at briar. napier@406mtsports.com or follow him on X/Twitter at @BriarNapier
