By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA – In Chelsea’s final game in its quest to finish regular season area play undefeated, the Hornets pulled off the feat with an impressive 45-30 win at Helena on Friday, Jan. 25 to finish 6-0 in Class 6A Area 8.

The Hornets slowly built their lead after each quarter until eventually building a double-digit lead where they never looked back.

Chelsea’s Jordan Parker had an unbelievable game offensively where she finished with 24 points to top all scorers. Eleven of Parker’s 24 points came in the second quarter alone as the Huskies had a tough time preventing her from getting to the basket.

Chelsea first-year head coach Jason Harlow said he wasn’t surprised Parker stepped up when the Hornets found themselves in foul trouble in the first half.

“We had some foul trouble and Jordan stepped up in the process,” Harlow said. “Jordan’s the type of kid that you dream about having as a coach. Not only is she one of the best players, she has one of the best attitudes, she’s a hard worker whether it’s on the track or at practice so that’s the type of kid she is. In big situations, it doesn’t surprise me she steps up.”

After taking a 9-8 first quarter lead, Chelsea added to its lead as Parker took over the second quarter, scoring 11 of Chelsea’s 13 points as the Hornets took a 22-15 lead into halftime.

The past few weeks, Helena has been dealing with a few injuries to its starters but despite this, the Huskies battled tough for the majority of the game.

Helena was within striking distance trailing 30-20 heading into the fourth quarter but Chelsea outscored the Huskies 15-10 in the final eight minutes to get the win.

Pressley Rains and Sydney Schwallie both had big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to prevent any sort of late comeback for Helena.

As Chelsea prepares to host the area tournament the week of Feb. 4, Harlow said he is happy for how his team came away undefeated in area play.

“I’m happy for the kids because they’ve committed to the process since the beginning of the summer and that’s really where it gets started,” Harlow said. “The success that they’ve had over the course of the last couple of weeks is contributed to the buy-in and they bought into the process through preseason workouts on into practice. Just a group of hardworking kids and they deserve that recognition and I’m happy for them. Helena is a really good team and they are dealing with some injuries right now and coach Skinner does a really good job with them. We were lucky to come in here and get a win.”

Julia Hensley finished as the leading scorer for Helena with 13 points.