Still the best in Northwestern A

It took awhile.

But the first smiles started to spread across the faces of the Columbia Falls Wildcats with about two minutes left in Saturday’s Northwestern A divisional championship game.

By the time the clock reached one minute, both coaches had emptied their benches and the hugs began on the Columbia Falls end.

The Wildcats claimed their second straight divisional title with a 60-46 win over Polson.

It was second straight year Columbia Falls (18-2) beat Polson in the title game.

Next stop is Butte and a 6:30 p.m. date on Thursday with the No. 2 team from the Eastern A.

“With about two minutes to go, Kyle (Howell) came up to me and says ‘we got this, Mitch,’” said Columbia Falls senior post Mitchell Wassam.

“I said, ‘No we got two more minutes.’

“But when coach pulled us out, I started to cry,” Wassam said.

“Two in a row,” he marveled.

“Everyone filled their role tonight,” he said.

Wassam helped get things started  — he scored nine of the Wildcats’ 21 first-quarter points.

“I consider myself one of the leaders of this team and I just wanted to come out both games of the tournament and set a tone early, make a statement, get everyone fired up,” he said.

Both teams were aflame in the early going.

The Wildcats raced to a 15-5 lead, only to see Polson score six straight and climb back into it.

“I thought our kids played great. I thought they came out and played relaxed. I thought maybe Ronan’s win this afternoon may have relaxed us a little bit, knowing we were going to state,” said 15th-year head coach Cary Finberg.

“But we want that first place trophy. We want that No. 1 seed going in (to state),” he said.

“First quarter, I thought offensively we played very well, the first half overall,” Finberg said.

“But boy, defensively we were not where we needed to be in the first half. We got that 15-5 lead, then we lost some guys and they got some open looks and battled right back in it,” Finberg said.

“We outrebounded them in the first half, but we just didn’t shoot the ball well tonight and we didn’t execute offensively very well,” said Polson coach Brad Pluff.

“You can beat the weaker teams in the conference playing like that, but not these guys. They’re one of the better teams in the state,” he said.

“Us not shooting well, they had something to do with that,” he added.

“They’re pretty good defensively, and they get after it pretty well, and we weren’t very patient ... but they had a lot to do with that.”

At half, Columbia Falls was hanging onto a six-point lead.

But the third quarter belonged to the Wildcats.

“The third quarter defensively we were very sound and I thought that was the difference for us,” Finberg said.

Offensively, they outscored the Pirates 19-12 to build their advantage to 49-36.

Michael Williams and Kyle Howell both contributed seven points in that quarter.

Howell finished with a game-high 18 points, as well as three assists and two steals. Williams had 10 points, four rebounds, an assist and a steal. Kaleb Johnson led the Wildcats on the boards with nine and also blocked three shots.

“I put up some shots early that didn’t fall, but I kept shooting and they eventually started to fall,” Howell said.

“I kind of settled in the first half, but the second half I started taking it to the hole ... and when that opened up, then I just kept going with what was working,” he added.

Polson kept the Wildcats in sight, though. The Pirates were within eight points with 5:04 to go in the game.

But Howell drove the lane and scored to put Columbia Falls back up 10 and the Wildcats outscored Polson 9-5 from that point on.

Polson was led by Kyle Bagnell with 12 points. Louis Mohr led in rebounds with seven.

The Pirates have one more trip to make to Kalispell — they take on Ronan at 6 p.m. Monday in a challenge game at Glacier. The Chiefs defeated Libby Saturday afternoon to claim third place.

“I told the kids to let it burn tonight. It’s going to hurt and that’s good. I’d rather that it hurt than have them not care,” Pluff said.

But the Pirates will be back at work today.

“If we can beat Ronan, then we still meet our goal and get to state,” Pluff said.

The Pirates swept the Chiefs in the regular season. They annihilated Ronan 88-50 in their last meeting.

“I don’t expect it to be that easy this time. They’ll be ready to play. They’re playing pretty well right now,” he said.

Polson 15     9     12     10 — 46

Columbia Falls     21     9     19     11 — 60

Polson — Vince Digiallonard 1 2-2 5, Kyle Bagnell 4 1-4 12, Tim Rausch 2 3-4 7, Louis Mohr 3 1-4 8, Tyler Krell 2 0-0 4, Sheldon Fischer 2 0-0 4, Derrick Rathe 2 1-26. Totals 16 8-16 46.

Columbia Falls — Kyle Howell 7 1-3 18, Austin Barth 2 2-2 6, Mitchell Wassam 5 2-4 13, Kaleb Johnson 2 1-3 5, Michael Williams 4 0-2 10, Nick Emerson 2 3-4 7. Totals 22 10-20 60.

3-point goals: Polson 6 (Digiallonard 1, Bagnell 3, Mohr 1, Rathe 1), Columbia Falls 6 (Howell 3, Williams 2, Wassam 1). Total fouls: Polson 18, Columbia Falls 11. Fouled out: Mohr, Krell. Rebounds: Polson 33, Columbia Falls 29. Assists: Polson Polson 6, Columbia Falls 12. Turnovers: Polson 10, Columbia Falls 9