TERRY COLUMN: Shaking off good losses

There’s nothing fun about losing.

Moral victories aren’t actual victories.

But losing happens, even to the best teams in the state.

The Bigfork boys and Columbia Falls girls, both undefeated entering last weekend, ran into marquee matchups with top-tier opponents last Saturday. Both dropped their first game of the season.

Bigfork, among the top five teams in Class B, gave up four points in the closing seconds to lose to unbeaten Florence on the road.

The Columbia Falls girls, ranked by many at the top of Class A, fell to the top team in Class AA, undefeated Missoula Sentinel, in a rout at home.

Both vowed to bounce back.

“Moving forward we have to use this as a positive and learn from it, get better because of it,” Wildkats coach Cary Finberg said after the 45-28 loss to Sentinel.

“I think we played like champions,” Bigfork coach Sam Tudor said of the narrow loss to the Falcons. “We took it right down to the wire with them, hopefully we get another crack at them.”

While losses to elite competition count the same as any other, playing in those games early in the season provides benefits, even without a victory.

In its game at Florence, Bigfork trailed by nine points at the end of the third quarter only to tie the game with less than a minute to play. A tip-in with two seconds to play and a buzzer beater were the only separation between the top two teams in Western Montana in a 53-49 victory for the Falcons.

“It’s good to go into an environment like that,” Tudor said.

“Towards the end — we were down about 10 points there — we battled back.

“All of that leads to benefits. You learn to keep playing, you learn to go into an environment that is a little bit hostile.”

Even in losses, you can learn things that work and other areas to improve before the stretch run in a little less than two months.

“You learn from these things, you can’t let your guard down,” Tudor said. “We let our guard down for a second.

“I was happy (with how we played). We outrebounded them by 10.

“We had some kids compete. We found out some things that we didn’t know. We went with a big lineup, that was pretty effective against Florence.”

You can also learn that you’re on the right path, despite the blemish.

“We believe in what we’re doing,” Tudor said. “Florence is a state (championship) caliber team. We played them to within a few points in their home gym. That’s a tough place to win. I was proud of them for competing the way they did. There was not any quit in them.

For the Vikings, the loss has also seemed to work in their favor. After slogging through some close wins, the team regained its focus against Florence.

“I think it made us hungrier,” Tudor said.

“You should’ve seen us practicing (this week). It’s a hungry bunch in the gym right now.

“Right after, in the locker room, I was ready to go out and coach another game. They were ready to go out and play another game. We weren’t satisfied but there wasn’t a teardrop amongst us. We want another crack at them.”

While Columbia Falls won’t be able to get another crack at Sentinel, the top-level competition was able to remind the Wildkats of what a bigger, stronger team can do after cruising to a 10-0 start.

For each the loss wasn’t fun, but it afforded something good.

“We’re going to be a fun team to watch the next few weeks,” Tudor said.