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The Chelsea Hornets accomplished their dream of winning an area title for their core group of seniors as they defeated Helena to finish area play 8-0 and enter sub-regionals with an 11-game win streak. (For the Reporter/Robert Dean)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

CHELSEA – For all that the Chelsea Hornets’ core of Haley Trotter, Sadie Schwallie, Caroline Brown and Olivia Pryor have accomplished over the last two years, there is one thing they hadn’t accomplished together: an area championship.

Hornets coach Jason Harlow vowed to change that, if for nothing else than to give them a piece of hardware to enshrine their years of success for generations to come.

“We were talking about that other day,” Harlow said. “We were looking up there at the banner of area championships, and I told each one of them that I feel like I would have failed as a coach to have the talent that we have collectively in here, and they not be able to come in here in 10 or 15 years and look up there and see ’25 hanging up there, because they’re such a great group, they’re a fun group to coach.”

And after back-to-back years of falling short, 2025 will now be added to that banner.

Chelsea defeated the Helena Huskies 63-21 on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at Chelsea High School to claim the Class 6A, Area 8 girls basketball championship and finish off a perfect 8-0 run through area play.

The Hornets grabbed the early momentum and forced a Helena timeout just 1:57 into the game after starting with a 4-1 run. They would slowly build onto that lead over the next few minutes before stepping on the gas pedal in the final two minutes of the quarter.

Chelsea outscored the Huskies 11-2 in the final 2:21 of the first as Pryor and Trotter hit their stride from the field. Trotter finished the quarter with eight points and Pryor had six in the first.

The Hornets pressure-packed defense also repeatedly came up with turnovers throughout the half and capitalized on the other end, including a Pryor steal and layup with 58 seconds left in the first.

Schwallie capped off the run with a corner 3-pointer as time expired to give the Hornets a 19-5 lead after the first quarter.

The scoring pace dramatically slowed down in the first three minutes of the second quarter, and that allowed the Huskies to cut the deficit to 10 with 5:19 left in the half.

However, Chelsea started picking off passes and getting points off turnovers. Pryor and Brown each had easy layups off steals before a Trotter reverse capped off a 10-0 run which left the hosts in front 31-11 with 2:36 remaining.

A Helena 3-pointer broke up the run, but the Hornets remained in control for the rest of the half and took a 37-16 lead into the break.

Chelsea’s defense hit an entire other level in the third quarter and surrendered just one field goal in the entire quarter, an Anna Owens 3-pointer with 57 seconds left.

On the other end of the floor, Brown dominated at all levels, scoring multiple baskets down low, including a three-point play, and following up another Schwallie 3-pointer with one of her own to make the lead 54-17 with 2:42 remaining in the third.

Trotter and Kamryn Hudson capped off the Hornets offense for the quarter before a Gracelyn Ambrose free throw left the score at 58-21 going into the fourth quarter.

Chelsea cruised from there as its backups got a chance to see out the area championship win to cap off a perfect run through area play.

For the second-straight game, Trotter finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds to secure another double-double. Brown joined her in double figures with 16 points and four rebounds.

Pryor racked up seven steals to go with her eight points, and Schwallie also finished with eight points and three steals. Hudson secured six points and seven rebounds in a strong game for the sophomore.

Mallory Rhodes finished as Helena’s leading scorer with eight points.

After the game, Harlow gave a lot of props to Helena coach Lake Graham and his staff for how they’ve turned the Huskies into a playoff contender. He felt the Hornets had their work cut out for them tonight defending stars like Amari Grant down low, but he credited his players for pressing well and capitalizing off of that.

“Helena’s a really well coached team and they’re a really talented team, and I didn’t expect the outcome that we had tonight because I feel like their coaching staff’s done a good job at having them playing their best basketball at the end of the year,” Harlow said. “We continued to kind of do, ‘If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.’ And so, it all starts with our press and putting pressure on them and just being consistent with that.”

Consistency has been the name of the game for Chelsea recently as the victory extends the Hornets’ win streak to 11 games in a row.

But now that it’s the playoffs, what’s in the past doesn’t matter to Harlow. It’s all about what his team does each time it steps onto the floor, and this time, he feels like they succeeded in executing the defensive game plan and finishing a playoff game better than they had in the past.

“You’re only as good as your last win and in consecutive games, I feel like we’ve guarded at a high level,” Harlow said of allowing just 30 combined points in the two area tournament games. “For us, the two things that we feel like you can have success with in playoff basketball is, ‘Can you take care of the ball, and then can you guard at a high level,’ and they’ve been doing that now since Christmas really.”

Chelsea now gets a Christmas gift of a home sub-regional game on Friday, Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. against the loser of Wednesday’s Class 6A, Area 5 championship between Benjamin Russell and Calera.

As for the Huskies, they will hit the road on that same night to face the Area 5 champion in hopes of continuing their strong recent form.

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