C-Falls rolls by Eureka

The Daily Inter Lake

COLUMBIA FALLS - The Lions proved they are for real Saturday night, but the Columbia Falls High School boys basketball team showed why it is the back-to-back defending Class A state champion, outgunning Eureka 79-60 in a Northwestern A game.

The Wildcats' victory puts them in a first-place tie with the previously-undefeated Lions. Both teams saw their Northwestern A records move to 5-1 while Columbia Falls improved to 7-3 overall and Eureka fell to 8-1. Eureka is playing its first season in the conference, and will return to Class B in the fall.

The entire contest was played at a frenetic pace, but early turnovers and miscues eventually gave way to an exhibition of up-tempo basketball between two teams that figure to challenge for the conference title.

"I just think both teams were trying so hard early on that they were trying to do some things that maybe weren't there, especially on our end," said Columbia Falls coach Cary Finberg. "I think we had 10 turnovers in the first quarter, and a lot of those just come from just trying to do a little too much. But we're working so hard on the defensive end, sometimes it's hard to slow yourself down offensively when you're going like that on the defensive end."

Junior guard Chase Grilley led Columbia Falls with 20 points. He scored 11 in the first half as the Wildcats stretched a 15-14 first-quarter advantage into a 38-29 halftime lead.

Columbia Falls senior forward Karsten Peterson scored 17 points, and senior forward Kyle Jangula added 11. Ten Wildcats reached the scoring column, but Columbia Falls' astounding depth was evident in other ways.

"I think our bench came in and gave us some quality minutes, and any time they can come in and give us three, four minutes like they did tonight, it's going to keep our starters a little more fresh," Finberg said. "And I just saw, once our starters came back in the game, especially there in the second half, we just seemed to have a little fresher legs."

The Wildcats certainly appeared fresh down the stretch, scoring 41 points in the second half, including 25 in the fourth quarter. Finberg routinely substituted five athletes at a time, and the Wildcats out-rebounded the Lions, 35-19.

"More so than the number of kids that scored for us, I thought the number of kids that rebounded and defended for us was a huge difference," Finberg said. "The last couple of games, we weren't getting a lot of transition baskets off our defense, and that's kind of hurt us a little bit, but tonight, defensively and on the boards, I thought we kind of controlled things from the start, and that allowed some kids to get some easy baskets."

But the Wildcats didn't have an easy time containing the Lions. Eureka's 6-foot-8 junior center John Davis showed a soft shooting touch in the paint, scoring 19 points.

"Compared to the first couple weeks, John has made leaps and bounds," said Eureka coach Eric Stang. "He's playing more confident, he's playing more aggressive, and that's the way it's been the last couple weeks."

Eureka senior forward Isiah Linnell entered the game averaging 18.5 points per contest, but finished with 11 points. His playing time was limited by early foul trouble.

"We knew they wanted to get up and down the floor a little bit, and our main focus was trying to contain the Linnell kid," Finberg said. "I thought we did that for the most part, but they're a good basketball team and they found some guys that stepped up for them and hurt us a little bit, and they stayed in the game for quite a while there. But I thought, defensively, we played real solid all game."

Senior guard Tony Boka scored 12 points for the Lions, but their showdown with Columbia Falls proved as trying as Stang expected.

"Regardless of the records, I knew coming down that it was going to be a tough game," Stang said. "They've had a system going for a long time that I think their kids really buy into, and they exemplified that tonight. They constantly keep the pressure on, and they play a lot of guys, and they take a lot of gambles, and they can afford to because that's their style of play."

The teams combined for 51 turnovers and 37 fouls in a physical contest, but Columbia Falls made just 12 turnovers during the last three quarters while continually harassing the Lions defensively.

"We knew coming into the game that we had to be really fundamentally sound and take care of the ball because that's what they like to do," Stang said. "They like to kind of make you panic and hurry, and then you're not using your fundamentals. You throw a lot of unforced turnovers."

Stang estimated that eight to 10 of Eureka's 29 turnovers were unforced.

"They didn't do anything against us that we didn't know was going to come at us, it's just one of those deals where you've got a game plan and you test it out, and if it goes well, great," Stang said. "I think it did the first quarter, and I think it did probably halfway through the second quarter, but things kind of fell aside there a little bit in the latter part of the second quarter."

Davis tied the game at 29-all when he scored with 1 minute, 26 seconds left in the first half, but Columbia Falls ended the second quarter with a 9-0 run, delighting Columbia Falls' raucous crowd.

"I think the kids feed off it," said Finberg of crowd noise. "You get the crowd making as much noise as they are and getting excited and getting into it, and the kids feed off it. But if they don't perform, the crowd is going to be quiet, so the kids have got to come out and perform."

The Lions and Wildcats clash again Feb. 10 in Eureka. The Lions will enjoy a home-court advantage, but their coach said they have plenty of work to do before the rematch.

"For one, we've got to do a better job of handling their pressure," Stang said. "And we've got to get stronger fundamentally. We really got out-hustled on the boards tonight. That normally doesn't happen to us, so I've got to look at that and see why that was happening."

Eureka's next game is Friday at Troy.

Columbia Falls resumes play Thursday when it entertains Class AA Missoula Hellgate at 7:30 p.m.

Eureka 14 15 12 19 - 60

Columbia Falls 15 23 16 25 - 79

EUREKA (8-1, 5-1) - Clete DeShazer 1 2-2 4, Zach Richter 1 0-5 3, Mattie Longfield 1 0-0 3, Tony Boka 5 2-2 12, John Davis 9 1-2 19, Devon Miller 2 1-4 5, Spencer Sartori 0 3-6 3, Isiah Linnell 5 1-1 11. Totals 24 10-22 60.

COLUMBIA FALLS (7-3, 5-1) - Chase Fairbank 2 0-0 5, Kyle Jangula 4 3-3 11, Dustin Gibson 1 2-2 4, Karsten Peterson 7 3-4 17, Bobby Pearce 2 3-6 7, Mackey Nolan 1 0-0 2, Michael Taylor 2 0-0 4, Chase Grilley 9 1-4 20, Mitchell Wassam 3 0-0 6, Grant Getts 1 1-2 3. Totals 32 13-21 79.

3-point goals - Eur. 2 (Richter 1, Longfield 1), CF 2 (Fairbank 1, Grilley 1). Rebounds - Eur. 19, CF 35. Assists - Eur. 2, CF NA. Steals - Eur. 7, CF NA. Blocks - Eur. 1, CF NA. Turnovers - Eur. 29, CF 22. Total fouls - Eur. 17, CF 20. Fouled out - none.