Kats: Northwestern A regular-season champs

COLUMBIA FALLS - Alyssa Ladenburg made it look easy on Tuesday night.

The Columbia Falls senior sprinted down court at the start of the second half, snuck a dribble behind her back to evade a Bigfork defender, and drove to the basket for a contested lay-up that banked right in.

Just like that, the Wildkats dismantled the Bigfork Valkyries 51-36 and won the regular-season Northwestern A girls conference basketball title.

Ladenburg finished with 14 points, Kayla DeWit had a game-high 17 and the Wildkats (8-1 in conference) secured a first-round bye in the divisional tournament on Feb. 26.

"Alyssa just had a whale of a game for us," Columbia Falls coach Dan Fairbank said. "This was her best game to date because she played a very intelligent game."

The team's only senior made a number of pinpoint passes throughout the night, including a quick dish to DeWit down low in the second quarter that gave the Wildkats a 20-6 lead.

"We started off on fire tonight and got some good momentum," Ladenburg said. "We definitely wanted to get in their face a little bit and take them by surprise."

And that they did.

Columbia Falls surged to a 7-0 lead in the opening 1:30, and went on to outscore Bigfork 27-11 in the first half. The Vals were flat all night and didn't get a basket until midway through the first quarter when Roxy Thurman banked in a 3-pointer.

"Give (Columbia Falls' credit, they come right at us from the get-go and just got us back on our heels and we couldn't respond," Bigfork coach Mark Hansen said. "It was big game for us, we wanted to stay in the upper echelon of the league and we just come and lay an egg."

Thurman finished with 11 points, Taylor Peck had 10 and Mallery Knoll chipped in six for Bigfork (5-4), who drop into fourth place below Polson (5-3).

It was the second win in a row for the Wildkats, who face Ronan on Saturday for the final game of the season, but have the conference title locked up due to two wins over Libby earlier in the season.

"The confidence just started rolling with us and the defense kept getting better and better," Fairbank said. "Everything luckily steamrolled on our side this time."

A host of players got on the board for Columbia Falls, eight in all. Brooke Cady netted five points, Shay Grilley added four and Kelsey DeWit had three.

Bigfork 5 6 3 22 ? 36

Columbia Falls 12 15 14 10 ? 51

BIGFORK ? Mallery Knoll 1 4-6 6, Quindee Averill 1 0-0 5, Taylor Peck 2 5-6 10, Roxy Thurman 2 6-6 11, Kailey Fierro 0 4-8 4. Total 7 19-26 36.

COLUMBIA FALLS ? Dani Gilley 1 0-0 2, Ashli Fairbank 0 2-2 2, Brooke Cady 2 1-6 5, Kayla DeWit 8 1-2 17, Ali Lampman 1 0-0 2, Alyssa Ladenburg 6 2-2 14, Shay Grilley 2 0-0 4, Kelsey DeWit 1 1-2 3. Total 21 9-16 51.

3-point goals ? Bigfork 3 (Thurman, Peck, Averill), Columbia Falls 0; Total fouls ? Bigfork 13, Columbia Falls 20; Fouled out ? Kelsey DeWit