Love reflects on the Bulldogs’ 3 all-league players

SANDPOINT — Seniors Dawson Driggs and Maddie Morgan, and junior Hattie Larson all received 4A Inland Empire League honors on Monday. It came as no surprise as the trio helped Sandpoint girls basketball pick up its first win at state since 2016.

Driggs was named the league MVP while Morgan and Larson each earned a spot on the all-league team.

As soon as the whistle blew to end last season, Driggs became the outspoken leader for the Bulldogs and she embraced the role. If someone wasn’t executing on either of the end court, Driggs didn’t shy from telling them.

“A lot of times you would see her out there after we gave up a run, encouraging the girls to play a little better,” head coach Will Love said. “She was a huge coordinator between myself and the rest of the program really. She took it on herself to let kids know when open gyms were, what time buses were leaving and if stuff needed to be turned in.”

The one thing that stood out about Driggs this season was her fearlessness to attack the basket. It seemed like at least five times in any given game, Driggs was falling to the hardwood due to her relentless effort to get to the hoop. And that mentality resulted in Driggs attempting over six three throws a game.

“I don’t know that I’ve had a kid get to the foul line as much as she did,” Love said.

If Driggs saw an open lane she took it, but she also played the role of point guard by facilitating the Bulldogs offense and giving the ball up when she knew someone else had a better chance to score.

Driggs averaged over 10 points and four rebounds during the regular season and districts this year and has a handful of schools interested in offering her a scholarship.

Morgan became much more than a 3-point specialist this season. She blossomed into one of the team’s best defensive players.

“Maddie improved tremendously as a defensive player,” Love said. “It was really neat to just see her growth in her last two years as a starter.”

But of course her ability to knock down the 3 is what made her so special. All it took was one make to get her going and once she got hot, no one could cool her down.

That was apparent in a Game 1 district championship series win over Lakeland where she knocked down six 3’s in the game.

“When she’s not scoring she’s still causing issues for opponents because they have to guard her,” Love said. “Her ability to stretch the floor allowed kids like [Driggs] and [Larson] to drive and get to the basket because teams could not leave her.”

Love said he is going to miss Driggs, Morgan and the rest of the seniors’ presence.

“It’s going to be tough this summer and next year when they aren’t around because they’ve been at varsity practices pretty much for four years so it’s going to be strange.”

Larson secured league honors for the second year in a row as arguably the Bulldogs most versatile player.

“She is such a difficult matchup for other teams,” Love said. “When we are playing well offensively, usually Hattie’s involved somehow because she’s bringing a bigger player out to defend her on the perimeter to kind of takeaway some rim protection.”

This forced opponents to shy away from playing man defense against Sandpoint and allowed the Bulldogs to play small on both ends.

Love will lean heavily on Larson next season and he isn’t worried about doing it.

“I’m expecting big things from Hattie and I know Hattie’s expecting big things from herself,” he said. “She’s got a drive and a determination that has allowed her to become an all-state soccer player, a medalist golfer and an all-league basketball player so Hattie really pushes herself.”