Pirates fall to Laurel in title game
Polson's Tim Rausch climbs past Laurel's Sean Condon for a lay up during the first half of their championship game during the Montana Class A Boys' High School Basketball Tournament played in the Butte Civic Center Saturday night.
BUTTE — The Laurel Locomotives just had one more run in them than the Polson Pirates did on Saturday night.
Laurel took a two-point lead into the fourth quarter and then clamped down defensively to defeat the Pirates 60-48 and claim its first Class A boys state basketball championship since 1972.
Both teams were neophytes to the title game — Laurel was last in the championship in 1991 (it lost to Whitefish) and Polson’s last appearance was its 1998 victory over Billings Central.
“In the fourth quarter, they stepped up their defense and we had a tough time scoring. That was the bottom line,” said first-year Polson coach Brad Pluff.
“We couldn’t get anything to go in the hole,” he said.
“They’re a good team and we had to play our best game.
“They played well. That’s a good team over there and we didn’t have our best effort. There were times we had lapses in executing our offense a little bit. You can’t do that against a good team. You’ve got to have your best game. We had some breakdowns and it cost us,” he said.
“But I’m not going to take anything away from them.
The Pirates came out hot and took an 8-3 lead in the opening moments.
But Laurel answered with a 7-3 run at the end of the first period and went ahead 15-14.
Polson’s Tim Rausch took the lead right back for the Pirates with an old-fashioned three-point play to open the second quarter. Tyler Krell followed that with a layup to put the Pirates up four.
But Laurel’s next run was huge — 14-1. The next time the Pirates looked up, they trailed by nine.
“We talked a lot in the locker room at halftime that we had a lot of one-on-one stuff going and we’re a lot better team when we play as a team,” Pluff said.
The Pirates listened and their third quarter was fabulous — they outscored the Locomotives 11-2 to start the period and got themselves right back in the game.
“I’m proud of the kids. They’re never going to quit playing,” the coach said.
“I knew we would make a run at them and I didn’t know if we would have what it took to sustain that,” Pluff said.
“We made a run and Laurel, like a good team will do, withstood the run and then made a run of their own and we weren’t able to answer that. That was the story of the game,” Pluff said.
Louis Mohr led the Pirates with 13 points and seven rebounds. Kyle Bagnell and Vince DiGiallonardo added 11 points each for Polson.
But the future is bright for Pirate basketball.
“We’ve got a lot of kids coming back. Obviously, we’re going to miss Tim (Rausch) and Derrick (Rathe) and the leadership they provided. But our freshman team was very good this year. Things are looking up for Pirate basketball.”
Laurel 15 19 9 17 —60
Polson 14 11 16 7 — 48
Laurel — Jake Miller 2 0-2 4, Quinn McGrath 1 1-2 3, Jake McKinney 7 5-9 20, David Swecker 4 1-2 13, Sean Condon 3 7-9 13, Brian Flotkoetter 2 0-0 4, Derek Budge 1 0-0 3. Totals 20 14-24 60.
Polson — Vince DiGiallonardo 4 0-0 11, Kyle Bagnell 4 2-2 11, Tim Rausch 2 3-7 7, Louis Mohr 5 0-1 13, Tyler Krell 1 1-2 3, Derrick Rathe 1 0-0 3. Totals 17 6-12 48.
3-point goals: Laurel 6 (Swecker 4, McKinney 1, Budge 1), Polson 8 (DiGiallonardo 3, Bagnell 1, Mohr 3, Rathe 1). Total fouls: Laurel 15, Polson 21. Fouled out: DiGiallonardo. Turnovers: Laurel 15, Polson 21. Rebounds: Laurel 36 (McKinney 8), Polson 27 (Mohr 7), Assists: Laurel 10 (Miller 4), Polson 9 (Rausch 4), Blocks: Laurel 1 (McKinney), Polson 3 (Bagnell 2), Steals: Laurel 11 (McKinney 6), Polson 3 (Rausch 2).