Bulldogs chew up Broncs
WHITEFISH — The scoreboard told one story, but the fiery play of Cole Havens, Willie Roche and the rest of the Whitefish Bulldogs told another one on Saturday.
A night after losing an intense cross-county boys basketball game at Flathead, the downtrodden Bulldogs faced a burly group from Frenchtown that included five starters who were an average height of 6-foot-2. But when it came down to it in the second half, the Bulldogs were the ones playing big.
Roche had four 3-pointers in the game and scored 14 of his 20 points in the final two quarters, Gage Vasquez chipped in 13 and Havens gave a display of the passionate play that Whitefish has been trying to foster again this season as the Bulldogs trampled the Broncs 61-41 at home in nonconference action.
With a one-point lead late in the third quarter, Whitefish went on a no-holds-barred 26-2 run and regained some of the swagger they’ve been missing as of late.
“The first half we didn’t play as well as we thought we should, so we came out in the second half pretty ticked off,” Roche, a senior, said. “If you didn’t notice our stands, not many people were here. We really want to pack this house and we wanted to show these people a good game tonight.”
The Whitefish faithful who did make it got see just about all they could ask for.
Roche rained in his third 3-pointer with just over two minutes left in the third to kick off the Whitefish avalanche.
While Roche, Vasquez and senior post Connor Silliker, who finished with 11 points, provided the baskets, Havens provided the bravado.
In the fourth quarter, the 5-8 senior wasn’t phased one bit as he battled down low among a group of Frenchtown linemen and grabbed a pair of rebounds that seemed unlikely at first until he came out of the scrum with the ball gripped in hand. Both times Havens earned trips to the line and finished 4-for-4. A hard foul in the paint took him out of the game minutes later, but not for long.
“Cole Havens, he’s all heart, he just brings the energy,” Whitefish coach Mark Casazza said.
The Bulldogs improved to 3-4 overall while Southwestern A Frenchtown dropped to 0-8 on the season.
“We were flat in that first half coming off the game from the night before but in the second half they really stepped up,” Casazza said. “The biggest thing is if we can play with the intensity we did against Flathead and take care of the ball the way we did tonight, we’ll be looking really good as the season goes on. I keep telling the kids, we just got to improve every week and that’s what we’re doing. We’re just getting a little bit better all the time and we’re going to keep it rolling.”
Mac Roche and Austin Green added five points apiece and the Bulldogs turned in their best all-around team effort of the season so far.
“We linked a lot of synergy together tonight, that’s one of our main keys to this year,” Willie Roche said.
Whitefish led by four at halftime and switched up the defense in the second half to try and hobble the Frenchtown post options, which worked right on cue.
“Our efforts in the first half gave us a chance, but coming out in the second half they switched defenses on us and played a little more zone and the adjustments we made, the guys just didn’t respond to the amount of pressure that was being applied,” Frenchtown coach Kye Nuttall said.
“It all starts with your defense and our defensive intensity picked up, and from that we just got more aggressive and did a lot better job on the offensive end,” Casazza said.
Whitefish returns to play on Friday at District 7B Bigfork at 7:30 p.m.
Frenchtown 16 7 11 7 — 41
Whitefish 16 11 17 17 — 61
FRENCHTOWN — Daniel Aichlmayr 3 0-2 6, Jake Anderson 3 2-5 8, Pat Bagnell 1 0-0 2, Richard Weber 5 2-7 12, Daniel Lebsock 2 1-1 6, David Diehl 0 0-1 0, Austin Blank 3 0-0 7, Jon Ray 0 0-0 0, Carson Hochhalter 0 0-0 0, Brydon Peacock 0 0-0 0, Jackson Mahlum 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 5-16 41.
WHITEFISH — Mac Roche 2 0-0 5, Kyler Blades 1 0-0 2, Austin Green 2 0-0 5, Cole Havens 0 4-4 4, Willie Roche 7 2-2 20, Gage Vasquez 6 1-3 13, Cooper Olson 0 1-2 1, Connor Silliker 5 1-4 11, Conner Watterud 0 0-0 0, Zach Maassen 0 0-0 0, Drew Galbraith 0 0-0 0, Chris Forrest 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 9-15 61.
3-point goals — Frenchtown 2 (Lebsock, Blank), Whitefish 6 (W. Roche 4, Green, M. Roche); Team fouls — Frenchtown 15, Whitefish 18; Fouled out — None.