Wildkats rally to give CFalls the split
Columbia Falls' Josie Windauer goes to the hoop against Glacier's Aubrie Rademacher in the third quarter against Glacier at Glacier High School on Thursday. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier's KJ Johnson drives to the hoop for a reverse layup past Columbia Falls' Allec Knapton in the first quarter at Glacier High School on Thursday. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Graceanne Sevesind may not show up in the boxscore but she definitely showed up Thursday when Columbia Falls forged a basketball doubleheader split.
The 5-foot-5 senior guard contributed nine points and a pair of steals as the Wildkats, using a 12-0 spurt to close the game, beat Glacier in the girls’ basketball nightcap.
Glacier won the opening boys’ game, getting 10 points and 11 rebounds from Drew Engellant in a 62-38 win over the Class A Wildcats.
Girls
Columbia Falls 58,
Glacier 49
It was all Wolfpack (0-3) early, with the hosts’ height making big problems on the boards. When the run-happy Wildkats did get a rebound the outlet pass was often knocked away.
“We weren’t doing what we needed to do offensively, and we weren’t rebounding,” said Columbia Falls’ coach Cary Finberg, whose squad trailed 26-13 after a bucket by Glacier’s Emma Anderson late in the first half. “We were tentative.
“Once we started rebounding the ball and stopped turning it over, that allowed our defense to set up and allowed us to run the ball better.”
Helping was a flurry to end the second quarter: back-to-back threes from Maddie Robison and Josie Windauer cut the gap to 28-22.
The second half saw Columbia Falls keep surging, though the Wildkats didn’t lead for good until Windauer’s free throw broke a 49-49 tie with 1:42 left in the game. When she missed her second free throw Sevesind rebounded and that led to a put-back by Windauer, who had a game-high 19 points.
“Graceanne is a kid that doesn’t care if she scores,” Finberg said. “She can hit some shots for us but that’s not her priority. She does a lot of the dirty work. She’s a little undersized but she battles hard and everybody kind of followed her lead a little bit.”
Robison added 15 points and eight rebounds for the WildKats (4-0), who ended up winning the board battle 38-33.
Anderson had 15 points and nine boards for Glacier, while Aubrie Rademacher chipped in with 12 and seven. Glacier plays host to Bozeman Friday in another non-conference girls’ game.
Columbia Falls 7 14 19 17 - 58
Glacier 15 13 12 9 - 49
COLUMBIA FALLS – Madysen Hoerner 5, LaKia Hill 5, Maddie Robison 15, Josie Windauer 19, Hannah Schweikert 14, Lauren Falkner 2.
GLACIER – Emma Anderson 15, Aubrie Rademacher 12, Ellie Keller 8, Kenzie Williams 3, Kaylee Fritz 2, ella Johnson 3, Madeline Bishop 3, Bethany Sorensen 2, Sidney Gulick 4.
Boys
Glacier 62,
Columbia Falls 38
The Wolfpack boys built a big lead on the boards and kept at it, winning that battle 35-18.
“We have three things we always talk about winning the battles within the game,” Glacier (2-1) coach Mark Harkins said. “Free throws is one, rebounds is another and turnovers. Rebounds was a key and I thought they did a good job tonight.”
Engellant, the lone wolf left from the 2017-18 State AA championship team, hit a 3-pointer to cap a 19-6 start by the Pack.
Teammate Weston Price added 12 points and seven boards. Keifer Spohnhauer and Jaxson Olsen added nine points each to a balanced attack.
“It’s kind of a position-less squad,” Harkins said of his team. “We have Drew playing the point guard position and also the five (center) , and we have other guys doing that. There’s a huge ceiling for these guys. I’m excited to see where they go.”
Glacier heads to Bozeman for a non-league boys’ game Friday.
Allec Knapton scored 12 points and snared five rebounds for the Wildcats (1-3).
Columbia Falls 7 16 10 5 - 38
Glacier 9 18 11 14 - 62
COLUMBIA FALLS – Danny Henjum 4, Dillon Shipp 3, Allec Knapton 12, Jack Price 4, William Dyon 5, Cade Morgan 4, Jake Bulawsky 4, Mason Peters 2.
GLACIER – Michael Schwarz 6, Drew Engellant 10, Weston Price 12, KJ Johnson 5, Keifer Spohnhauer 9, Jaxson Olsen 9, Colin Presnell 3, JT Allen 2, Dillon Riffle 3, Luke Bilau 1.