Ronan holds back Whitefish

WHITEFISH - Every answer.

Every loose ball, every important rebound, every shot that needed to go down.

The Ronan Chiefs had all those in a 77-65 Western A boys basketball win Tuesday night over host Whitefish.

"Any time you can get a road win in Western A it sets a tone. It gives you an upper hand for the rest of the week," a happy Ronan coach Aaron Griffin said afterward.

The Chiefs built a nine-point halftime lead over the Bulldogs and then just held onto it.

Every time the Bulldogs started to climb closer or force a momentum change, the Chiefs found a way to knock them back down.

"We fought, but we just didn't fight hard enough. This team is going to have to compete with blue collar effort," Whitefish coach Derek Schulz said.

"We have to win all the little battles - and we lost most of them tonight," he added.

Ronan had 18 assists to 12 for the Bulldogs, it had 11 steals to six for the Bulldogs and it turned the ball over 16 times to 22 for Whitefish.

And then the Chiefs just shot well - they were 29-for-66 on the night with nine 3-pointers.

"Any time you have guards like I do, it's an advantage," Griffin said.

Ronan's three senior guards - Jimmy Michel, Aaron Skogen and Zanen Pitts - accounted for 48 of their points.

Michel led the Chiefs with 19, Skogen added 17 and Pitts 12.

"We just left them open," Schulz said. "We just didn't get a hand in their face."

"Their guards are tough to handle defensively and offensively. We just didn't get the stops we needed to get," he added.

"They outquicked us to the ball. Our rebounding just wasn't what it has been and wasn't what it needs to be."

But Whitefish still had opportunities. The Bulldogs were within striking range most of the third quarter - and were within six points with 5:29 left in that period.

"But we didn't convert when we did have opportunities," Schulz said.

"We had some opportunities where we had layups or at least close-range shots - we didn't even get a shot off.

"We might cut it to seven (points), but they hit the next shot. On a couple of those critical possessions, if they hadn't connected, we might have changed the momentum of the game.

"Every bit of progress we made, they took it right back," Schulz said.

Whitefish was led by junior post Mike McCracken with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Senior guard Philip Bertelsen added 14 points and sophomore Luke Fennelly added four assists.

CHIEFS 77, BULLDOGS 65

Ronan 14 27 19 17 - 77

Whitefish 16 16 17 16 - 65

Ronan - Bud Collicott 2 2-2 6, Aaron Skogen 6 2-3 17, Daniel Stuber 3 1-1 8, Jimmy Michel 7 1-2 19, Sam Herreid 1 1-1 3, D.J. Orr 2 1-2 5, Zanen Pitts 5 1-2 12, Nick Harris 1 1-2 3. Totals 29 10-17 77.

Whitefish - Sam Penzi 3 0-0 8, Luke Fennelly 3 2-4 8, Jake Cummings 2 0-0 5, Bryan Wram 1 0-0 2, Philip Bertelsen 4 4-7 14, Cody Idol 1 4-9 6, Casey Speer 1 0-0 2, Mike McCracken 7 2-4 16, Nate Breeze 0 2-2 2, Charley Bowman 1 0-0 2. Totals 23 14-26 65.

3-point goals: Ronan 9 (Michel 4, Skogen 3, Stuber 1, Pitts 1), Whitefish 5 (Penzi 2, Bertelsen 2, Cummings 1). Total fouls - Ronan 21, Whitefish 19. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: Ronan 28, Whitefish 32. Assists: Ronan 18, Whitefish 12. Turnovers: Ronan 16, Whitefish 22.