Mee, Loggers hold off Pirates
The Daily Inter Lake
LIBBY - Jackie Mee did all of her scoring at the free throw line in the final quarter, hitting on four-of-six shots, to help Libby hold off hard-charging Polson 38-31 in Northwestern A girls basketball action on Saturday.
Mee finished with a game-high 14 points.
"My all-state player made some free throws down the stretch," Libby coach Jim May said. "Four in row.
"We had a pretty good lead, up 12 at one point in the third quarter," he added.
"Polson did a great job getting back in the game, getting us back on our heels."
Libby improves to 3-1 in league, 5-3 overall. Polson, 2-2 and 4-5, was led by Breanne Kelley's 11 points.
Polson 6 6 8 11 - 31
Libby 7 15 6 10 - 38
POLSON - Amanda James 5, Staci Benson 2, Pete 2, Breanne Kelley 11, Sarah Newton 7, Cali Hislop 4.
LIBBY - Evi Cernick 2, Brittany Martin 11, Jaime Gilden 10, Logan Best 1, Jackie Mee 14.
Friday
At Troy
Libby 14 8 22 7 - 51
Troy 5 2 11 6 - 24
LIBBY - Evi Cernick 6, Alysha Martin 3, Brittany Martin 8, Jaime Gilden 7, Logan Best 3, Jackie Mee 24.
TROY - Maestas 6, Pepoit 4, Olds 3, Harpole 7, Anderson 4.
Coeur d'Alene 60,
Glacier 22
COEUR d'ALENE - Coeur d'Alene held Glacier to single-digit scoring in all four quarters to post an easy nonconference victory.
Emilee Hashlee led Glacier, 3-5 overall, offensively with 10 points.
Glacier 7 6 7 2 - 22
Coeur d'Alene 15 10 21 14 - 60
GLACIER - Maddey Frey 2, Kadie Latimer 2, Lindsea Vaudt 2, Emilee Hashlee 10, Brooke Watkins 2, Ashley Waggener 4.
COEUR d'ALENE - Natalie Stewart 6, Amanda Buttrey 1, Dayna Drager 2, Kama Griffitts 15, Sadie Simon 10, Amy Warbrick 12, Carli Rosenthal 7, Whitney Heleker 3, Kelsi DeHaas 4.
Bigfork 62, Ronan 44
BIGFORK - Roxy Thurman had 17 points, eight steals and seven rebounds and the Valkyries held the Ronan Maidens to only nine points in the fourth quarter.
Quinci Paine scored 13 points and Mallery Knoll netted 10 for Bigfork, 4-2 overall, 1-0 conference.
Morgan Belgarde had a game-high 18 points for Ronan, 0-8, 0-4.
Ronan 10 11 14 9 - 44
Bigfork 15 13 16 18 - 62
RONAN - Taylor Lynch 1, Kaylee Larson 5, Jordan Strozzi 5, Carli Starkel 7, Alice VanGunten 2, Jade Michel 2, Nina Orozzo 4, Morgan Belgarde 18.
BIGFORK - Mallery Knoll 10, Quinci Paine 13, Ariana Shults 2, Quindee Averill 2, Taylor Peck 6, Roxy Thurman 17, Caitlin Charlebois 5, Kailey Fierro 5, Signa McLeod 2.
Columbia Falls 46, Whitefish 43
WHITEFISH - The Columbia Falls defense kept Whitefish from getting a good look at the basket with time running out to claim a Northwestern A conference victory.
Alyssa Ladenburg had a game-high 15 points, and Kayla DeWit chipped in 14 for the Wildkats, 5-3 overall, 4-0 conference, who fell behind 17-8 in the opening quarter.
Kate Klundt paced Whitefish, 3-6, 0-3, with 12 points and seven assists, and Beth Donovan scored 10.
Columbia Falls shot 16-of-24 from the free throw line, while Whitefish made only 4-of-15.
Columbia Falls 8 12 18 8 - 46
Whitefish 17 14 6 6 - 43
COLUMBIA FALLS - McKenzie Reeve 4, Dani Gilley 2, Brook Cady 3, Kayla DeWit 14, Alyssa Ladenburg 15, Kelsey DeWit 8.
WHITEFISH - Jessie Slaybaugh 6, Torie Powell 2, Kate Klundt 12, Olivia Nagler 5, Beth Donovan 10, McCara Cullen 4, Paula Oliveira 4.
Eureka 52, Troy 32
EUREKA - Mariah Newell tied a career-high with 25 points and the Lions defeated Troy in District 7B play.
Eureka, 2-7 overall, 2-2 conference, jumped ahead 15-3 heading into the second quarter and attended to the lead from there.
Stephanie Vogelman scored 10 points and the Lions' press stymied the Trojans, 5-5, 1-3, for most of the night.
Troy 3 11 7 11 - 32
Eureka 15 11 14 12 - 52
Troy - Allie Maestas 3, Jackie Pepiot 9, Alyssa Olds 3, Molly Harpole 15, Natassaja Hines 2
Eureka - Taylor Holder 6, Jonna Yost 4, Kayci West 2, Auna Lawler 5, Stephanie Vogelman 10, Mariah Newell 25
Boys
Eureka 45, Troy 44
EUREKA - Troy's Jesse Day hit a jump shot with 4 seconds left to give the Trojans a one-point lead, but Eureka's Ryan Holder threw a full-court pass to Jesse Thomson, who made the game-winning lay-in as time expired.
"It was a very exciting game," said Eureka coach Chad Dunn. "We've lost some close ones, but our kids are learning how to win. Hopefully, it'll snowball from here."
Marcus Pluid scored a game-high 24 points, Thomson finished with six and Andrew Sanders netted 10 for the Lions, 2-8 overall, 2-2 conference. Aaron Palmer scored 11 points for Troy.
Eureka 8 13 12 12 - 45
Troy 10 6 16 12 - 44
EUREKA - Jesse Thomson 6, Andrew Sanders 10, Ryan Holder 2, Ben Deckhart 3, Marcus Pluid 24.
TROY - Jesse Day 9, Shadow Garrett 10, Aaron Palmer 11, Brian Hammrich 4, Clayton Kryss 9, Steph Jones 1.
Coeur d'Alene 46,
Glacier 39
COEUR d'ALENE - Coeur d'Alene outlasted Glacier in a low-scoring nonconference contest.
Coeur d'Alene led 19-16 at the half.
Ben Cutler, nine points, and Shay Smithwick-Hann, eigth, led Glacier, 5-3 overall, offensively.
Glacier 12 4 10 13 - 39
Coeur d'Alene 14 5 11 16 - 46
GLACIER - Connor Fuller 2, Colter Hanson 5, Shay Smithwick-Haan 8, Logan Quay 2, Mike Rasmussen 7, Ben Cutler 9, Chad Gassaway 2, Ben Sansaver 4.
COEUR d'ALENE - Devon Austin 13, Connor White 3, Stevens Casley 1, Curtis Reno 19, Deon Watson 3, Connor Williams 7.
Whitefish 52,
Columbia Falls 47
WHITEFISH - Colt Idol turned in another double-double, 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Aaron Tkachyk, 11, and David FauntLeRoy, 10, also reached double-figure scoring as Whitefish improved to 2-2 in Northwestern A, 6-4, overall.
Tkachyk and Matt Whitefish both had three assists, which was a team high.
Columbia Falls led 17-7 after the first period, but Whitefish regrouped to tie the game at 24 at the half.
"We started out a little rough, but we recovered in the second (quarter)," Whitefish coach Eric Stang said. "We played tough and played together. That's what we've been building on. The kids did a great job executing the game plan."
Columbia Falls' Mackey Nolan led all scorers with 14 points.
Columbia Falls 17 7 6 17 - 47
Whitefish 6 18 9 19 - 52
Columbia Falls - Kyle Howell 2, Josiah Begay 2, Mackey Nolan 14, Austin Robbins 6, Mitchell Wassam 3, Kaleb Johnson 4, Grant Getts 9, Michael Williams 7.
Whitefish - Matt Whitehead 4, Aaron Tkachyk 11, Willie Roche 2, Josh Backer 5, Marc Hotzfield 1, Connor Silliker 7, Colt Idol 12, David FauntLeRoy 10.
Ronan 59, Bigfork 57
RONAN - Ronan battled back in the second half and hung on for a two-point win over winless Bigfork.
Bigfork, 0-2 in Northwestern A and 0-7 overall, led 30-21 at the half.
Ronan climbed back with a 23-point third quarter.
"They had a big third quarter," Bigfork coach Lyle Whiteman said. "That was a big difference, took away most of our lead."
Brock Boll had another double-double for Bigfork with 13 rebounds and 16 points. Garrett Pewe pulled down eight rebounds.
Mike Fisher and Kyle Hendrickx shared scoring honors for Ronan with 13 points each.
Bigfork 12 18 16 11 - 57
Ronan 6 15 23 15 - 59
BIGFORK - Garrett Pewe 6, Zac Hansen 2, Leo Daigle 2, Brock Boll 16, Jake Milner 15, Scott Taylor 8, Keenan Evans 2, Donny Trudahl 6.
RONAN - Mike Fisher 13, Dallas Cordier 10, Eddie Ness 11, Jay Sorrell 4, Nolan Harris 9, Kyle Hendrickx 13.
Libby 63, Polson 58
LIBBY - Libby survived a wild-fourth quarter to hold off Polson in a Northwestern A battle.
Joel Fuller and Conner Benson shared team-high scoring honors for the Loggers with 17 points apiece. Colton Cannon added 15.
Polson's Lewis Mohr scored 18.
Polson slips to 3-1 in league, 6-3 overall; while Libby improves to 3-1 and 7-2.
Polson 6 16 13 23 - 58
Libby 14 14 16 19 - 63
POLSON - Craig Bagnell 8, Kyle Bagnell 10, Waylon Michel 4, Tim Rausch 8, Randy Kelley 2, Lewis Mohr 18, Sheldon Fisher 2, Derrick Rathe 2, Joe Andrews 4.
LIBBY - Cree Maloney 3, Conner Benson 17, Kelly May 5, Joel Fulle