'Dogs find depth in victory

Whitefish's Ferda, Labuda combine for 39 points for Whitefish Ronan

WHITEFISH - Hello, Dana Labuda.

The Ronan High School girls basketball team came out with a box-and-one Friday night on Whitefish's Ashley Ferda and Labuda, a 5-foot-9 junior forward, answered with a career-high 20 points alongside Ferda's 19 in the Bulldogs' 63-48 Northwestern A victory in the WHS gym.

The victory evened the Bulldogs' conference record at 3-3 and improved their overall record to 3-7. Ronan fell to 1-4 in conference and 3-6 overall.

Tied 16-16 going into the second quarter, Ronan made just three of 11 field goals while Whitefish made seven of 15 to take command. The Bulldogs led by nine points at halftime, 33-24, and gradually extended their lead in the second half.

The game wasn't crisp, but the energy of both teams made it entertaining.

The teams combined or 123 shots, 31 free throws, 86 rebounds and 51 turnovers.

"The kids didn't feel real good about their performance, but that's OK," Whitefish Coach Tim Olson said. "We've got a long ways to go. We want to be peaking three weeks from now."

The difference in the game was Whitefish's 38 percent shooting clip (26-for-69) compared to Ronan's 32 percent shooting (17-for-54) coupled with Ronan's 31 turnovers compared to Whitefish's 20.

"We just came out flat," Ronan Coach Karla Moxley said. "I don't know if we were lethargic after the bus trip or what, but we came out flat and couldn't quite get into it. It was not what I expected. Offensively, when we executed, we got good looks at the basket but we didn't make layups."

Ronan's box-and-one on Ferda held the conference's scoring leader to three first-quarter points and seven second-quarter points - and three of those nine points came from the free-throw line. A box-and-one is when four defenders play zone defense and the fifth defender plays man-to-man on somebody.

The one part of the game that was above average was Whitefish's passing. Senior point guard Kirsten Blackburn had five assists and Ferda had three. The team ended up with 15 total assists, but that number would have been a lot higher had the Bulldogs shot better.

"We passed the ball extremely well," Olson said. "Blackburn passed it tremendously. Ferda made everybody on the floor better with her passing. If we finish (our shots), we'd have 30 assists. If we finish and concentrate down low and knock those in, we score a lot of points and get a lot of assists."

With Ferda bottled up, Labuda had six first-quarter points and 10 first-half points before erupting for eight in the third quarter. She made nine of 16 shots and was 2-for-3 from the free-throw line. She also tallied eight rebounds and two assists.

"We saw a box-and-one and ran some plays away from Ashley (Ferda)," Olson said. "The other girls needed to step up. We got them shots and good opportunities. Dana (Labuda) played great. Again, that's those guards getting her the ball."

Senior guard Kali Schmidt had nine points, six rebounds and three assists in the victory.

Ferda scored 10 of her 19 in the second half and grabbed five of her nine rebounds in the second half to almost register a double-double. She also had five steals.

Senior post Kaitlin O'Leary scored all six of her points in the first half and had five rebounds.

"Kaitlin got some great looks for us, but they just didn't go in," Olson said. "I've said it all year, we will go as far as Labuda and O'Leary improve. They are working their tails off in practice and they'll be there in the end."

Sophomore Kate Klundt entered the game late and fought her way to seven rebounds and two steals as Whitefish won the rebounding battle, 46-40.

Ronan was led by sophomore guard Carli Starkel's 15 points and five rebounds, senior guard Shayla Couture's 11 points and five assists and junior forward Ishan Wylie's eye-popping 16 rebounds.

"That's normal," Moxley said. "She works really, really hard on the boards. But defensively, we didn't talk enough to compensate for what we were trying to do. We were running a box-and-one and the three big girls on the bottom weren't talking. We ran it against Frenchtown and it worked very well."

The Bulldogs are back in action Thursday at Class AA Flathead. Ronan hosts conference front-runner Bigfork tonight.

Ronan 16 8 9 15 - 48

Whitefish 16 17 18 12 - 63

RONAN (3-6, 1-4) - Ashlee Cheff 1-1 0-0 2, Stephanie Salomon 2-5 2-5 6, Jordan Strozzi 0-1 0-0 0, Kaylee Larson 1-5 1-2 3, Ali Anderson 1-9 1-2 4, Carli Starkel 6-9 0-1 15, Ishan Wylie 2-7 2-2 6, Allison Crenshaw 0-1 0-0 0, Stephanie Meyers 0-1 0-0 0, Shayla Couture 4-10 0-1 11, Lindsay Roberts 0-3 1-2 1, Mariah Friedlander 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 17-54 7-15 48.

WHITEFISH (3-7, 3-3) - Kirsten Blackburn 2-6 0-0 5, Kaitlin O'Leary 3-8 0-0 6, Ashley Ferda 7-18 4-6 19, Kali Schmidt 4-6 1-1 9, Desiree Clarke 0-8 1-4 1, Dana Labuda 9-16 2-3 20, Kate Klundt 0-2 1-2 1, Chelsea Ray 1-4 0-0 2, Torie Powell 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-69 9-16 63.

3-point goals - Ron. 7-17 (Starkel 3-4, Couture 3-5, Anderson 1-4, Salomon 0-1, Strozzi 0-1, Meyers 0-1, Roberts 0-1), Wht. 2-9 (Blackburn 1-4, Ferda 1-4, Schmidt 0-1). Rebounds - Ron. 40 (Wylie 16, Salomon 5, Starkel 5, team 4, Larson 3, Couture 3, Crenshaw 2, two tied with 1), Wht. 46 (Ferda 9, Labuda 8, Klundt 7, Schmidt 6, O'Leary 5, Ray 4, team 4, Blackburn 2, Clarke 2). Assists - Ron. 11 (Couture 5, Salomon 2, Larson 2, two tied with 1), Wht. 15 (Blackburn 5, Schmidt 3, Ferda 2, Labuda 2, three tied with 1). Steals - Ron. 9 (Strozzi 3, six tied with 1), Wht. 14 (Ferda 6, Blackburn 4, Klundt 2, two tied with 1). Blocks - Ron. 1 (Larson), Wht. 3 (O'Leary 3). Turnovers - Ron. 31, Wht. 20. Total fouls - Ron. 16, Wht. 13. Fouled out - Couture.