C-Falls rips FHS

COLUMBIA FALLS — Defensive intensity was the name of the game during Columbia Falls Wildkat basketball practice this week.

After two losses last weekend in Ronan, the Wildkats needed just a little kick.

Coach Dan Fairbank gave it to them.

The result was a 47-29 victory Thursday night over visiting Flathead.

“Coach gave us a little talk that just changed everything for the good,” said junior post Kayla DeWit.

“He just explained to us how much hustle we need to do and how much it is included in games. He told us to go out there and work our hardest, go until we puke … not just until we’re satisfied,” she said.

“We played much harder than we did last week. We hustled harder than we did last week,” Fairbank said.

“I was really happy. I was pleased with our half-court trap, I thought we moved a lot better. Just our movement all around was better this week. Last week, we were just dead. We didn’t move. We didn’t go anywhere,” he said.

“I challenged the girls to step it up and they did,” he said.

“I think everybody came out defensively and really picked it up. (The Bravettes) came out and we just stuck it to them. We blocked out a lot better. I thought it was a very good team effort,” Fairbank said.

Flathead stuck around in the early going — it was down 8-4 after the first quarter, but the Bravettes had trouble offensively and a 13-3 Columbia Falls run in the second quarter pretty much slammed the door.

Led by the DeWit sisters — both Kayla and Kelsey scored four points in the quarter and 17 and 16, respectively for the game — the Wildkats raced to a 23-9 halftime margin.

Meanwhile, Flathead had trouble knocking down shots — it was 10-for-44 on the night for 22.7 percent.

Sophomore Brittany Earnest led the Bravettes in scoring with 10 points. Tess Brenneman was next with six.

“We need to score. We need to find a way to score,” said Flathead coach Karly Tait.

“We just can’t get down 10 or 12 points, because we’re having trouble scoring. That’s what we’ve got to work on.

“We just have to gain some confidence, I guess. We need to find someone to step up and knock shots down, because our defense is there. We had great intensity, the girls played hard the whole game. We were diving on the floor until the last second. We had 19 steals, which is great.

“But layups, outside shots, free throws … everything has got to get better,” she said.

“We‘re just young, not a lot of varsity experience, but we’re working. We will get better,” she said.

Neither team shot well from the free throw line.

The Wildcats were 9-for-24 while the Bravettes were 7-for-19.

And turnovers?

“That was definitely a disappointment,” DeWit said.

The Wildkats had 26 while Flathead turned it over 19 times.

“We just make stupid mistakes. We need to calm down and set it up,” DeWit said.

“Silly turnovers,” Fairbank agreed. “We get a steal and we tend to give it right back to them.”

But those things didn’t bother him a lot on this night.

“We’ll work on some turnovers and our free throw shooting and little things like that, but overall I was happy. All those little things, they’ll come.

“We have a veteran team that is young,” he said.

“Trying to replace Alyssa Ladenburg is a much bigger deal than some girls thought. She was such a good ball handler, such a good leader. It’s hard to replace Alyssa,” Fairbank said.

“We‘re still trying to figure out our idenity as far as that. Once we do that, we‘ll be all right.”

Flathead     4     5     11     9 — 29

Columbia Falls     8     15     8     16 — 47

Flathead (0-2) — Sam Thompson 1 0-2 2, Tess Brenneman 2 2-6 6, Taylor Twichel 0 1-3 1, Taylor Keltner 1 1-4 3, Annie Cronk 1 0-0 2, Brittany Earnest 2 2-2 10, Danika Johnson 2 1-4 5. Totals 10 7-19 29.

Columbia Falls (1-2) — Kayla Stratton 0 0-1 0, Cedar Jordt 0 0-02 0, Danielle Gilley 1 1-3 3, Ashli Fairbank 0 3-5 3, Kayla DeWit 8 15- 17, Brooke Cady 1 0-1 2, Shay Grilley 3 0-1 6, Jonna Werner 0 0-2 0, Kelsey DeWit 6 4-4 16. Totals 19 9-24 47.

3-point goals: Flathead 2 (Earnest 2), Columbia Falls 0; Total fouls: Flathead 21, Columbia Falls 18.