Dillon holds off Whitefish

GREAT FALLS - Dillon's Dakota Norris might as well have stepped in front of a rolling boulder.

With just over a minute left to play and the Beavers leading by only 3 points, Norris planted himself in the paint as Whitefish's 6-foot-2 David FauntLeRoy rumbled into the 5-10 senior, who earned the charging call.

Norris went on to sink back-to-back free throws making him 6-for-6 in the fourth quarter and Dillon held off Whitefish 48-42 in the first round of the Class A boys state basketball tournament at the Four Seasons Arena on Thursday night.

"It was worth it," Norris, who finished with 11 points, said of the hard charge. "And Trevor Rehm, he stepped up and took a huge one too earlier, so it's a huge team thing."

Senior Bryce Carver had a team-high 17 points for the Beavers, who play Billings Central today in the semifinals. Whitefish moves to the consolation bracket and faces Butte Central at 2 p.m.

"It was definitely a battle and we knew it would be. (Whitefish is' a great team, they sure got a lot of weapons," Dillon coach Terry Thomas said. "We're fortunate that we got a few shots to drop."

"You get to the state tournament, every possession counts so you got to make sure and make the most of it, because mistakes will cost you," Whitefish coach Eric Stang said.

Colt Idol scored 7 of his 21 points in the opening quarter and the Bulldogs surged on a 10-0 run. But from then on, Whitefish looked stumped on offense.

"In the second quarter, we got a little stagnant on offense," Stang said. "(Dillon) really packed it in with that 2-3 (zone) and that's something we've seen plenty of before, I just felt we weren't reversing the ball enough and trying to spread it out and get some better looks."

At the same time, Dillon's offense was anything but overpowering. But the timeliness of the scoring made all the difference.

In the second quarter, Whitefish led 16-14 and looked relaxed until Dillon popped back-to-back treys and retook the lead with under four minutes to play in the half. That would be the final lead change in the game, as Dillon answered every time Whitefish came knocking.

"Offensively, I thought we did a real nice job with shot selection and getting the ball in the hands of the kids who had good looks to score," Thomas said.

"We gotta play our style of basketball, we can't slow down and allow other teams to force us to play their style," Stang said. "We just gotta come out and play with a lot of fire and intensity."

David FauntLeRoy scored 11, Josh Backer chipped in 6 and Aaron Tkaychk had 4 to round out Whitefish's scoring.

Whitefish 12 7 9 14 - 42

Dillon 7 13 11 17 - 48

WHITEFISH - Aaron Tkaychk 2 0-0 4, Josh Backer 3 0-0 6, Colt Idol 7 3-6 21, David FauntLeRoy 5 1-1 11. Total 17 4-6 42

DILLON - Bryce Carver 6 4-8 17, Dakota Norris 2 6-6 11, Brandon Boka 4 0-0 11, Pete Walde 1 2-6 4, Monte Folsom 1 0-0 2, Trevor Rehm 1 1-6 3. Total 15 13-26 48.

3-point goals: Whitefish 4 (Idol 4), Dillon 5 (Boka 3, Carver, Norris); Total fouls: Whitefish 22, Dillon 12; Fouled out: None; Total rebounds: Whitefish 27 (Idol 10), Dillon 28 (Rehm 6, Norris 6); Turnovers: Whitefish 16, Dillon 13; Assists: Whitefish 10 (Whitehead 6), Dillon 10 (Norris 3, Boka 3)