No. 5 Wildcats smack down No. 3 Chiefs

Take over 1st place in Northwestern A basketball

COLUMBIA FALLS - Whoa. Nobody expected what happened in the Columbia Falls High School gym Friday night.

In a battle between Class A's third- and fifth-ranked boys' basketball teams with high-octane attacks, No. 5 Columbia Falls emphasized defense and held No. 3 Ronan down while slowing its own game down for a 26-point, 66-40, Northwestern A victory.

"It wasn't a 26-point game," Columbia Falls coach Cary Finberg said. "It just got a way from them at the end a little bit."

The Wildcats ended the first half on a 14-0 run to take a 31-16 lead into the locker room. They extended their lead by a point in the third quarter, then outscored the Chiefs, 21-11, in the fourth quarter.

With the teams knotted with 5-2 records atop the conference coming into the game, the Wildcats (6-2, 11-5 overall) avenged a 56-54 loss earlier to Ronan and took over sole possession of first place. Ronan (12-4) and Polson are tied for second with 5-3 records. Each team has two regular season games left.

"We haven't accomplished anything yet," Finberg said. "We still have to go to Polson, but we are focusing on Whitefish coming here (tonight)."

The secret to the Wildcats' success in this one was getting out of their full-court press and throwing a solid mix of half-court zone defenses at the Chiefs. By staying in their zone defenses, the Wildcats finished with a huge rebounding advantage (43-23). Mackey Nolan led the way with 12 rebounds.

"We mixed it up between the 1-2-2, 1-3-1 and 2-3," Finberg said. "We had them confused at times with what we were in. But they took care of the ball and looked for good shots. We slowed them down a little bit and eliminated their easy shots and rebounded better."

The Chiefs committed just 11 turnovers and ran everything in their offense, but made only 25 percent of their shots.

"We just picked a bad time to have a bad game," Ronan coach John Hollow said.

Columbia Falls' Chase Grilley had 26 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals while seven other teammates hit the scoring column. Zane Ridings and Mitchell Wassam added 14 and eight points, respectively. Ridings and Chase Fairbank each tallied five rebounds. The Wildcats made 52 percent of their shots.

"We figured we'd save our energy for the half-court defense and then get after the rebounds," Grilley said. "We mainly went with a 1-2-2 with the top guy taking the point and another taking the low post and everyone else matching up to the person in their zone, and then boxed out when the shot went up.

"It kind of shocked me that it slowed them down so much. They are a run-and-gun team and average 60 or 70 points a game."

Ahead just 19-16 halfway through the second quarter after Ronan went on 6-0 run, Grilley took over and launched C-Falls into the crucial 14-0 run. He started it with a reverse layup. Then in back-to-back possessions, he completed no-look assists to Nolan and Fairbank. Just a minute and a half after hitting the reverse layup, he connected on a fast-break jumper. Then he even added a free throw.

Three Chiefs scored 10 points apiece. Moss Tanner, who made just three of 18 shots, was one. Mike Fisher and Nolan Harris were the others.

Ronan12 4 13 11 - 40

C.Falls 17 14 14 21 - 66

RONAN (5-3, 12-4) - Moss Tanner 3-18 4-7 10, Mike Fisher 4-9 1-2 10, Ryon Hesselgesser 0-4 0-0 0, Makenzy Kelch 0-2 0-0 0, Jordan St. Clair 2-5 3-3 7, Eddie Ness 1-6 0-0 3, Nolan Harris 4-11 0-0 10, Kyle Hendrickx 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-55 8-12 40.

COLUMBIA FALLS (6-2, 11-5) - Chase Fairbank 1-3 0-0 2, Kyle Howell 0-1 0-0 0, Cody Bowman 1-2 1-2 3, Zane Ridings 5-12 3-3 14, Mackey Nolan 2-4 1-2 5, Chance Meyer 0-0 0-0 0, Matt Triplett 1-1 2-2 4, Austin Robbins 0-0 0-0 0, Chase Grilley 9-17 7-8 26, Mitchell Wassam 4-5 0-0 8, Kaleb Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Grant Getts 2-2 0-0 4, Michael Williams 0-1 0-2 0. Totals 25-48 14-19 66.

3-point goals - Ron. 4-28 (Harris 2-7, Fisher 1-3, Ness 1-6), CF 2-8 (Ridings 1-2, Grilley 1-4). Rebounds - Ron. 23 (Tanner 7, Hesselgesser 6, Harris 4, Fisher 3, team 3, Kelch), CF 43 (Nolan 12, Grilley 7, Fairbank 5, Ridings 5, Triplett 3, team 3, Bowman 2, Wassam 2, Johnson 2, Getts 2). Assists - Ron. 7 (Tanner 4, Hesselgesser 2, St. Clair), CF 14 (Grilley 5, Nolan 4, Fairbank 3, Ridings, Getts). Steals - Ron. 6 (Tanner 2, Harris 2, Hesselgesser, St. Clair), CF 9 (Grilley 4, Nolan 2, Fairbank, Ridings, Wassam). Blocks - Ron. 0, CF 1 (Bowman). Turnovers - Ron. 11, CF 17. Total fouls - Ron. 17, CF 14. Fouled out - none.