Barth Brothers help carry the load for Columba Falls

GREAT FALLS - Being a freshman playing on the varsity is hard enough, but being a freshman on varsity and helping your team get to the state basketball championship is unreal.

Luckily for Austin Barth, he has his older brother Tanner around to help.

"Whenever I screw up over something, he's always correcting me," Austin said of his teammate and brother, who is a senior on the Columbia Falls basketball team. "It's good, I can look up to him, I guess."

However, looking up to Tanner can be hard in some ways for Austin. The curly-haired freshman is a hair shy of 6-foot-5, while Tanner stands 5-11.

"It's great having my brother on the team, especially since he's a freak," Tanner said with a smile after Friday's semifinal win over Browning.

During the Browning game, the Barth Boys came off the bench and combined for 13 points. But it was the third quarter that especially needed a touch of the Barth family hustle to get the Wildcats back on track.

With Columbia Falls down 7 points, Tanner came into the game and took a charge within a minute, then went on to drain a pair of free throws that were part of a 6-0 run for the Wildcats. Tanner went on to score 6 points in the quarter.

"He was huge for us tonight. That third quarter he was tremendous," Columbia Falls coach Cary Finberg said. "The thing I like about Tanner is he keeps battling, he keeps plugging away. He's struggled at times and he's been huge for us at times. He never gave up and that's a tribute to him."

In the meantime, Austin held his own against Browning senior AJ St. Goddard and kept the 6-4 post from scoring in the third quarter. Barth went on to foul out midway through the fourth quarter and walked off the court with his head down, but a little brotherly show of support was waiting for him.

"He's a freshman and he steps right in in the big games and it doesn't seem to bother him," Finberg said of Austin. "He's a special player, he's got a chance to be very good. He has some things that you can't teach. It's just a matter of how good he wants to be."

For a mother, it's just about a dream come true to see two sons playing together at the state tournament.

"Just to see the two boys play together is so much fun," said Susie Barth, wearing a blue T-shirt with the boys' names on back. "It's unreal to have a freshman playing at state, and to see my son, my senior come out and have the game he just had in his senior year is just really, really cool."