Vikings hold off Chiefs

BIGFORK — A 5-foot-9 junior guard saved the day for the Bigfork Vikings on Thursday.

Evan Jordt led all scorers with 17 points for the game — but seven of those came in the final 4:28 as the host Vikings were fending off a scratching, clawing rally by the Ronan Chiefs.

The Vikings (8-1) built a huge advantage over the Chiefs, then watched a good portion of it slip away when Ronan (1-8) came alive late in the third quarter.

But thanks to great early shooting by Lael Richmond and Christian Ker — and Jordt’s late heroics, Bigfork was able to shove Ronan aside, 66-52.

“Evan stepped up in the fourth quarter and really saved this game for us,” said Bigfork coach Paul La Mott.

“He was driving the ball and pushing the action so we were able to get some good looks,” La Mott said of Jordt.

“If he hadn’t done what he did in the fourth quarter we may not have been able to hold onto our very large lead,” the coach said.

The Vikings were on fire in the early going. The Chiefs ... weren’t.

“I just thought the first half ... we score 14 points. We put ourselves in a heck of a hole,” said Ronan coach Steve Woll.

“I thought our kids handled the half-court pressure fairly well. We just did crazy things, missing bunnies, (losing the ball) off our knee, off our foot. They’d come down and score, so instead of two-points, it’s a four-point swing.

“And they offensive board so well. We knew that and we worked on it all week, but it still got away from us,” he said.

“They just smashed us on off boards,” he added.

“We had a very good first half ...  actually we had a very good first quarter, a strong first half and then we played very poorly in the second half,” La Mott said.

“We didn’t possess the ability to finish. We’re happy to get away with the victory ... but I think it should have been a lot different than it was,” he hastened to add.

The Vikings definitely got off on the right foot. Ronan had one brief lead — 5-2 with 6:35 to go in the first quarter.

Ker and Richmond erased that with 13 points in just over three minutes.

Bigfork led 20-6 after the first quarter and was up 20 at the half.

Bigfork pushed its lead to 26 points with just under two minutes left in the third quarter.

The Chiefs started their climb back at that point, outscoring the Vikings 11-2 to close out the period.

“Lael started out very well — and that was a big factor for us being successful in the first half, but he didn’t score in the second half and attempted very few shots. He just lost a lot of his aggression,” La Mott said.

“We lost our composure a little bit against their press. Again, something we have seen before and we are perfectly capable of handling,” La Mott said.

“We just weren’t taking good shots, lots of turnovers. We were just making really poor decisions and poor passes,” he added.

Suddenly, the Chiefs stopped bouncing the ball off their own feet — and started getting some shots to fall.

Ronan hit three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to cut the Bigfork lead to 11 points with 1:48 to go.

Carter Sorensen added 10 points for Bigfork and Travis Knoll scored nine.

Other leaders were Ker with nine rebounds, Keenan Evans with seven boards and Richmond and Sorensen with six rebounds each. Jordt and Knoll each added four assists and Knoll had five steals.

“Travis played quite well for us this evening from start to finish,” La Mott said.

Ronan had three in double figures — Jarod Tanner with 12 points, Justin Dusty Bull with 11 and Lucas Black with 10.

Ronan     6     8     15     23 — 52

Bigfork     20     14     12     20 — 66

Ronan — Jarod Tanner 5 0-0 12, Gordon North Piegan III 2 1-4 5, Marcus Hungerford 3 0-2 6, Lucas Black 4 0-0 10, Justin Dustybull 4 2-2 11, Kevin Wroblewski 3 0-2 6, Colten Cheff 0 2-4 2. Totals 21 5-10 52.

Bigfork — Carter Sorensen 3 2-2 10, Lael Richmond 3 2-2 8, Evan Jordt 6 4-6 17, Cody Dopps 0 1-2 1, Travis Knoll 2 5-8 9, Colter Trent 3 0-0 6, Evan Keenan 2 3-6 7, Christian Ker 3 0-0 8.  Totals 22 17-24 66.

3-point goals: Ronan 5 (J.Tanner 2, Black 2, Dustybull 1), Bigfork 5 (Sorensen 2, Jordt 1, Ker 2). Total fouls: Ronan 23, Bigfork 15. Fouled out — J. Tanner.