Camel, Pirates nip Loggers
COLUMBIA FALLS — It’s always good to have confidence.
Polson junior guard Zack Camel has plenty of that. The Pirates’ leading scorer averages 13.11 points per game, so he has every right to feel good about his shot.
But on Thursday night in the opening round game of the Northwestern A Divisional tournament, his shots weren’t falling.
Camel was not having a night to write home about — he had no points and because of foul trouble, had played sparingly.
All that changed in the last five seconds against Libby.
Trailing by a point, Camel hit a turnaround jumper to lift the Pirates over the Loggers, 33-32.
“I was cold the whole game. But the coach drew up the play and said ‘make the shot,’” Camel said.
“(The coaches) kept telling me to keep shooting, they’ll start going. They kept telling me I would hit them when it mattered,” Camel said.
“I hit the one that mattered, I guess.
“They drew up the play just for me. They first wanted me to get in the post. But that didn’t work. So then they drew up an out-of-bounds play for me. We practice that play all the time for me to hit it. I executed when it mattered, I guess,” he said.
“Coming down the stretch, that kid had a lot of confidence. That’s what you hope for,” said Polson coach Brad Pluff.
“He told us (in the final timeout) ‘this is my baby. I’ll be danged if he didn’t knock it down,” the coach said of Camel.
“We needed a win. Bad. We hadn’t won a game since Tyler (Krell, 6-foot-6 senior post) got hurt. We’d lost five in a row coming into this thing, so we had to find a scrapping way to win.
“And then our leading scorer plays four minutes, five minutes, because he’s in foul trouble.”
Camel picked up his second foul with 4:54 left in the first quarter. Foul No. 3 came with 5:39 left in the half and he picked up No. 4 with 3:35 to go in the third period.
This one was touch and go from the start. Libby led 17-16 at half. Polson built a 23-19 lead midway through the fourth quarter, but the Loggers stayed close and took one- point leads three times in the fourth.
Jared Winslow led the Loggers with 14 points. Riley Sampson led the Pirates with nine points.
“We couldn’t shake them,” Pluff said of the Loggers.
Polson had a terrible time from the free throw line — it wound up 5-for-14 for the game and missed seven straight in the second quarter.
“We lost the battle on the boards. That was the biggest hurdle we couldn’t overcome,” said Libby coach Wally Winslow.
“Defensively, I thought we were solid. We had to play some zone in the second half because of foul trouble.
“And Polson ran a good out-of-bounds play.”
But Winslow was also encouraged.
He complimented Kraig Nelson on his free throw shooting (4-for-4 on the night).
“The kids have gotten a lot better over the course of the season. The played pretty hard.”
The next thing for the Loggers is to learn to win, Winslow said.
“We needed one more defensive rebound at the end. Those are the kinds of plays you make to win.”
The Pirates will play Columbia Falls in tonight’s semifinal at 6.
“We’re ready. We think we can take them. We’ve just got to start shooting. I will be better (today),” Camel promised.
“I hope we can give ourselves a chance. Then anything can happen,” Pluff said.
Libby will play the loser of Whitefish/Frenchtown on Saturday morning.
Libby 4 13 7 8 — 32
Polson 8 8 9 8 — 33
Libby — Micah Germany 2 0-0 5, Elias Lapka 1 0-0 3, Jared Winslow 4 4-6 14, Josh
Foote 2 0-2 4, Kraig Nelson 0 4-4 4, Barak Lapka 1 0-1 2. Totals 11 8-13 32.
Polson — Vince DiGiallonardo 3 1-1 8, Will Davey 1 0-3 2, Ian Laimbeer 2 1-2 5, Zack Camel 1 0-2 2, Cody Fischer 1 2-4 5, Brady Hislop 1 0-0 2, Riley Sampson 4 1-2 9. Totals 13 5-14 33.
3-point goals: Libby 4 (Germany 1, E. Lapka 1, Winslow 2), Polson 2 (DiGiallonardo 1, Fischer 1). Total fouls: Libby 15, Polson 15. Fouled out: None.