Wildcats clamp down on Braves

COLUMBIA FALLS — You don’t make the state tournament five out of the last nine years by easing into the season with a soft nonconference schedule.

Head coach Cary Finberg likes the Columbia Falls boys basketball team to battle from start to finish.

On Thursday, the Wildcats did just that and needed every basket they could muster to hold off a stubborn Flathead Braves squad and remain undefeated at 4-0.

Six-foot-five sophomore Austin Barth had a team-high 10 points and senior Mitchell Wassam scored six of his eight points in the fourth quarter to lead Columbia Falls past Flathead 51-43 in an up-tempo nonconference boys basketball game.

“That’s kind of what we expected out of Kalispell. We knew they would play hard and be aggressive,” Finberg said. “They played good defense and kind of took us out of some of the things that we wanted to do, but on the flip side we played pretty good ‘D’ too.”

“It was a battle. It was a hard fought game, and certainly Columbia Falls played awfully well,” Flathead head coach Fred Febach said.

“Their half court trap is really tough. They can really increase the defensive pressure out of it and they came out really strong with it in the second half. That kind of threw us for a loop a little bit. We tried to adjust on the run and certainly that’s a greater learning experience for us because we’re going to see that throughout the season.”

Kaleb Johnson and Michael Williams had nine points apiece and the Wildcats held a three-point advantage with roughly three minutes left in the fourth quarter. From there, the defense of Columbia Falls clamped down.

“We played good enough defense to keep us in it and then we played good enough offense in the fourth quarter to get the win,” Finberg said. “Defensively right now we’re pretty dang good. We’ve got some guys learning new roles and we’re trying to get some chemistry going offensively. Like we were saying here a little bit ago, we’ve got a lot of room for improvement but we’re 4-0, so being 4-0 with room to improve is a lot better than being 0-4 with room to improve.”

Flathead’s top scorer, senior Karl Ingram, fell into foul trouble early but managed to score a game-high 12 points while junior Ian Gillespie had 11 points and made two straight 3-pointers in the second quarter that ignited a 10-0 run that put the Braves ahead for the first time, 18-15.

“We just basically tried to compete at a high level and I thought we did an excellent job in that regard,” Febach said.

The Braves looked like a young team full of potential on Thursday while the Wildcats appear to be growing into an identity similar to last year’s state runner-up team.

“Guys are learning different roles and they have to step up in different areas than they were accustomed to last year, and that’s why we play these games and that’s why we’re playing a tough nonconference schedule, to prepare us for later in the year,” Finberg said. “We’ve said all along we like the potential of this group, but they have to reach that potential for us to be successful at the end of the year, and we’re still working on that.”

Columbia Falls hosts AA Missoula Sentinel on Saturday at 5 p.m., while Flathead hosts Libby at 8 p.m.

Flathead    8    12    12    11    —    43

Columbia Falls    11    11    11    18    —    51

FLATHEAD (0-2) — Tanner Salois 2 2-2 7, Karl Ingram 5 2-3 12, Ian Gillespie 4 1-1 11, Joe Pistorese 1 1-3 3, George Sherwood 3 0-0 6, Mike VanArendonk 0 0-4 0, Connor Tice 1 0-0 2, Jeremy Grosswiler 1 0-0 2, Dean Stimpson 0 0-0 0, Keaton Jordt 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 6-13 43.

COLUMBIA FALLS (4-0) — Kyle Howell 3 1-2 8, Nick Emerson 2 0-0 4, Austin Barth 4 2-3 10, Mitchell Wassam 4 0-0 8, Kaleb Johnson 3 3-7 9, Michael Williams 3 2-3 9, Matt Triplett 1 0-0 3, Chris King 0 0-0 0, Tim Spencer 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 8-15 51.

3-point shots — Flathead 3 (Gillespie 2, Salois), Columbia Falls 1 (Howell); Team fouls — Flathead 16, Columbia Falls 16; Fouled out — None.