Whitefish, Ronan boys advance to final Northwest A play-in
Whitefish and Ronan got through their Northwest A boys basketball play-in games Thursday; next up is a 1 p.m. battle in Ronan on Saturday.
The winner of that game advances to next week’s Western A boys divisional in Butte, and will face Hamilton — No. 1 seed out of the Southwest A — in the first round.
Whitefish 53, Polson 42
WHITEFISH — Mason Kelch scored 18 points, Carson Krack added 16 and the Bulldogs (11-8) withstood a late 14-2 run by the Pirates.
Kelch hit three 3-pointers for Whitefish, which led 44-26 late in the third quarter, before Polson closed to 46-40 on Anthony Lichtenberg’s breakaway layup with 2:15 left.
The Pirates had a chance to get closer, but Whitefish’s Carson Gulick swatted away a Polson 3-pointer and with 50 seconds left Ryan Conklin drilled a three for the Bulldogs, making it 49-40.
Lichtenberg scored 18 points and Brenden Griffin 11 for Polson, which ended up 2-17.
Polson 7 12 12 11 - 42
Whitefish 16 12 16 9 - 53
POLSON — Anthony Lichtenberg 18, Jesse Vail 2, Maddox Bird 6, Ezra Fasthorse 2, Brenden Griffin 11, Cason Graham 3.
WHITEFISH — Carson Gulick 7, Carson Krack 16, Mason Genovese 2, CJ Thew 6, Mason Kelch 18, Ryan Conklin 4.
Ronan 77, Libby 44
RONAN — Kolby Finley scored 16 points to lead four Ronan players in double figures, and the Chiefs built a 35-22 halftime lead to stay alive in the postseason.
Finley hit three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter as Ronan (11-8) blew the game open; he was 3-for-4 from the arc and the Chiefs were 10 of 17 there. Tayen Edmo, Lauranace Loezeau and DaVonn Curley all hit two 3-pointers; Curley and Edmo combined for 20 points off the bench.
Tyler Andersen had a game-high 17 points for Libby, which ended up 3-16. Ryan Beagle added 11 for the Loggers.
Libby 11 11 10 12 - 44
Ronan 19 16 12 26 - 73
LIBBY — Aidan Rose 7, Tristan Andersen 2, Ryan Beagle 11, Tyler Andersen 17, Talan Glenn-Woody 7.
RONAN — Kolby Finley 16, Laurance Lozeau 6, Wade Qualitier 10, Ted Coffman 4, Sean Small 12, Tayen Edmo 8, DaVonn Curley 12, Chad Higgins 2, Try Samsel 3.