Whitefish cashes in on Fennelly's 3-point shooting
Senior guard hits four treys, finishes with 16 points in 52-36 win over Ronan
The Daily Inter Lake
WHITEFISH - Luke Fennelly was at his usual best Thursday dishing out assists left and right.
But where the 5-foot-7 senior guard really burned Polson was with his long-range shooting.
Fennelly popped in four 3-point field goals and was just as deadly from the free throw line, where he went 4-for-4, to lead all scorers with 16 points and helped Whitefish to a 52-36 victory in opening-round play of the Northwestern A boys basketball tournament.
Fennelly came into the contest averaging five assists, but only five points per game.
"For Luke to step up when we were stagnant on offense was huge," said Whitefish coach Julio Delgado.
"Huge."
The victory sends Whitefish (9-10) on to the semifinal round tonight against Eureka at 6.
Polson (7-12) drops into loser-out action today at 4 p.m. versus Bigfork.
Polson came into the contest with a solid approach - beat us from the outside. The Pirates went with a zone defense and it worked early.
Whitefish missed its first five trey attempts and Polson led 8-4.
Fennelly then broke the ice with a trey with 9.8 seconds left in the quarter.
He came right back in the next period with three more during a 1:07 spurt as Whitefish jumped in front for the first time at 16-12.
Colt Idol followed with two free throws and Aaron Tkachyk also went 2-for-2 from the charity stripe as Whitefish was in control, 20-12.
The Bulldogs outscored Polson 17-3 in the second period to lead 24-13 at the break.
"We weren't getting anything done against their zone (in the first quarter)," Delgado said.
"We wanted to hit Colt Idol in the middle."
The Pirates managed to stop that, holding Idol to 10 points for the game.
Whitefish led by many as 15 points twice in the third period before Polson battled back.
A couple of 3-point field goals by John Rausch cut the deficit to seven points. However that was as close at the Pirates would get.
Down 34-27 with 5:24 to play, Polson missed a trey and then turned it over on three straight possessions.
"Just little things like that will demoralize you," said Polson coach Karl Tait.
"That was the turning point of the game."
Whitefish used a free throw by Idol to go on a mini 7-0 run after that to push the lead to 14, 41-27, with 2:55 to play. That also sealed the victory.
Rausch led Polson in scoring with 11 points. He was the team's only double-digit scorer.
Another key statistic that really favored Whitefish was free throw shooting. The Bulldogs hit 19-of-20 shots while Polson went 10-for-18.
"We weren't ready to play," Tait said.
"I don't know why; I don't know why. I thought we were.
"You have to give credit to coach Delgado," Tait continued.
"He's done a good job with these kids."
Whitefish started the season going 0-8.
Polson 10 3 9 14 - 36
Whitefish 7 17 8 20 - 52
Polson - Craig Bagnell 1 0-0 2, John Rausch 4 1-2 11, Chris Ogle 2 2-3 6, Cody Doyle 1 0-0 2, Joe Andrews 0 1-2 1, Tyler Gordon 1 2-4 4, Tim Rausch 1 4-5 6, Zach Langston 2 0-2 4. Totals: 12 10-18 36.
Whitefish - Aaron Tkychyk 1 6-7 8, Shawn Watterud 1 2-2 5, Luke Fennelly 4 4-4 16, Byron Whitcomb 2 0-0 4, Colt Idol 2 6-6 10, Jamie Clogg 3 1-1 7, David FauntLeRoy 1 0-0 2. Totals: 14 19-20 52.
3-point goals - Rausch (2), Fennelly (4), Watterud. Team fouls - Polson 16, Whitefish 17. Fouled out - None.