Four straight divisional titles for C-Falls boys

COLUMBIA FALLS — The whistle blew. The ball rolled ever so slowly around the rim and plopped in.

Columbia Falls senior Anthony Correa went to the free-throw line with a ‘one-and-one’ opportunity and Columbia Falls coach Cary Finberg emphatically pumped his fist in a ‘count it’ motion.

By that time, Columbia Falls led Whitefish by 20 points in Saturday’s Northwestern A Divisional championship game and was well on its way to a 66-40 victory.

Apparently, the Wildcats took Finberg’s halftime message to heart. All he said was rebound better and finish offensively.

It’s the fourth straight divisional title for Columbia Falls.

“We owned the boards and got the breaks going. Guys were finishing,” Finberg said.

“We didn’t really make any adjustments. We knew we needed to be a little more patient offensively and then we needed to rebound the ball better. Once we started doing that we got some good looks off our break,” he said.

“I thought from the first minute to the last minute our kids competed. They played hard. I’ll watch the film later, but I don’t recall any letdowns. Whitefish hit some shots and kept it close for awhile, but our kids kept plugging away and plugging away,” he said.

Correa scored 10 of his team-high 15 points in that period.

“My coach told me I needed to start making my layups. They just wanted us to go out and get rebounds and for me to finish my layups and not be afraid of being blocked by anyone. I just went out there and finished them. I just went out and played,” the forward said.

“We went out there and played as a team,” he added.

Senior guard Parker Johnson affirmed that there were no magic adjustments.

“We stayed in the same defense, but we turned up our defensive intensity and we started finishing on the offensive end. Sometimes on offense in the first half, we struggle,” Johnson said.

“We missed a few easy layups — and we cleaned that up in the second half,” he added.

Johnson added 12 points for the Wildcats, followed by Jared Trinastich with 10.

Gage Vasquez paced the Bulldogs with 15 points.

As for claiming that fourth straight title?

“Couldn’t be any better. Divisional champions, senior year on our own court,” Johnson said.

“We came out flat in the third quarter and they pushed the tempo on us,” said Whitefish coach Mark Casazza.

“Columbia Falls does a great job. They’re a great program, well-coached and their kids play with a lot of heart.

“They came out and jumped on us hard. We didn’t do the little things right tonight, boxing out and getting back on defense, and they did,” he added.

The Bulldogs still have state tournament hopes, but they have some work to do on Monday night. They meet the third place Polson Pirates at 6:30 p.m. for a challenge game.

“Now we’ve got to regroup as a team and come out ready to play on Monday and win ourselves a berth to Butte,” Casazza said.

“We match up a lot better with Polson with our size,” Casazza said.

The Bulldogs won both regular season meetings with the Pirates, so “the guys know they match up and we’ve played well against them in the past,” he said.

The Wildcats have some work to do to. They’ll savor this win briefly, then be back at practice.

“We’ll have to have a good week of practice, then hopefully when we get (to Butte), we can do something,” Johnson said.

“I’m real proud of this team and this senior class,” Finberg said.

“It’s been a tremendous senior class. Our goal was to get back to state. We’re there. Now we’re going to reassess our goals, win that first game on Thursday and get ourselves into Friday night.

“We’re not done yet. We’ve still got some work to do. We can get better. That’s the good part. This crew is playing some good basketball right now,” Finberg said.

Whitefish 4 13 8 15 — 40

Columbia Falls 14 13 26 13 — 66

Whitefish - Christopher Forrest 1 0-0 3, Jake Slaybaugh 3 0-0 6, Bryce Wehrli 1 0-0 2, Logan Harwood 1 0-0 2, Gage Vasquez 5 1-3 15, Cooper Olson 2 1-2 7, Jace Kalbfleisch 1 1-1 3, Jake May 1 0-0 2. Totals 15 3-6 40.

Columbia Falls - Alex Presnell 1 1-2 3, Ronny Gallego 2 0-0 5, Luke Kazlauskas 3 3-3 9, Anthony Correa 7 0-3 15, Parker Johnson 5 1-2 12, Brian Marcille 1 0-0 3, Austin Barth 4 1-4 9, Jared Trinastich 5 0-0 10. Totals 28 6-14 66.

3-point goals: Whitefish 5 ( Vasquez 2, Olson 2, Forrest 1), Columbia Falls 4 ( Gallegos, Correa, Johnson, Marcille); Total fouls: Whitefish 11, Columbia Falls 11. Fouled out: None.