Streaking Wildkats thump Maidens

COLUMBIA FALLS — Kayla DeWit sure knows how to help the Columbia Falls Wildkats get over their turnover blues.

The 6-foot-2 junior poured in 18 of her season-high 24 points in the first half against Ronan and guided the Wildkats to their third-straight victory, a 60-28 win over the Maidens in Northwestern A girls basketball at Larry Schmautz Memorial Court on Friday.

Exactly a week after matching her previous season best of 22 points in a win against Libby, DeWit muscled around a pint-sized Maidens squad and scored eight of Columbia Falls’ first 13 points.

“We got beat by a pretty good team tonight,” Ronan head coach Doug Fisher said. “Their twin towers as they call them, the DeWit sisters, they’re as good as any post pair that we’ve seen all year, and they’re maybe as good as anybody in the state.”

The Wildkats led from the start, but the Maidens pinched the Wildkats’ Achilles’ heel in the first half and forced turnovers that narrowed the gap to as close as 14-10 at the end of the first quarter.

“We started out real good but we had about half of the first quarter and half of the second quarter where we just let them back into it,” Columbia Falls head coach Dan Fairbank said.

“But overall I had a lot of different girls shooting the ball which is a good thing and I thought we were aggressive most of the game. We just have to get rid of the turnover blues.”

By halftime, DeWit had effectively exposed the Maidens’ main weakness — size — and had outscored Ronan single-handedly as Columbia Falls went into the locker room with a 32-16 lead that only grew from there.

DeWit, who is averaging 18.63 points per game, had tallied 22 twice this season, the first against Stevensville at the Tip-Off Tournament on Dec. 12.

Kayla’s sister Kelsey nearly matched her season scoring average (13 ppg) with a 12-point effort and Shay Grilley and Danielle Gilley each had eight apiece for the suddenly red-hot Wildkats (5-4 overall, 2-0 in conference).

“That’s a good team, the best team we’ve seen all year,” Fisher said of Columbia Falls. “Obviously we couldn’t match up with them man-to-man because of their size and they’re just a lot more physical than we are right now with their maturity.”

Jonna Grant, Ronan’s tallest player at 5-11, paced the Maidens (1-9, 1-3) with nine points and Nina Orozco added seven.

Columbia Falls put its well-known size-advantage on full display while tuning up a full court trap that stumped Ronan mightily throughout the game. The success of the Wildkats, who made it to the state tournament last year and return all but one player, looks strongly rooted in that size.

“We should have high percentage shots all the time when you have three six-footers,” Fairbank said, referring to the DeWit sisters and senior Brooke Cady. “We have three players that a lot of people don’t have, so we should get very high percentage shots.”

Columbia Falls continues through the conference calendar with a home game against rival Whitefish at 6 p.m. tonight.

Ronan    10    6    6    6    —    28

Columbia Falls    14    18    14    14    —    60

RONAN — Nina Orozco 1 5-9 7, Taylor Lynch 1 0-0 2, Jonna Grant 4 1-1 9, Alice Van Gunten 0 3-4 3, Ashley Grandchamp 1 0-0 3, Tailyr Irvine 1 0-0 2, Katie Andrews 0 0-0 0, Mariah Cheff 0 0-0 0, TyLynn Lefthand 0 0-0 0, Courtney Clairmont 0 0-0 0, Shandeen Belanger 0 0-0 0. Totals 8 9-14 28.

COLUMBIA FALLS — McKenzie Reeve 1 0-0 2, Danielle Gilley 4 0-0 8, Kayla DeWit 8 8-8 24, Brooke Cady 1 4-5 6, Shay Grilley 3 2-2 8, Kelsey DeWit 5 2-5 12, Jonna Werner 0 0-0 0, Allie Lampman 0 0-0 0, Kayla Stratton 0 0-0 0, Cedar Jordt 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 16-20 60.

3-point goals — Ronan 1 (Grandchamp), Columbia Falls 0; Team fouls — Ronan 13, Columbia Falls 10; Fouled out — Van Gunten