DIVISIONAL RESULTS--THURS., 2-26

February 27, 2009

By Terry Werner of Northwest Montana A Conference

GIRLS BASKETBALL DIVISIONAL
GM 1--POLSON 65 WHITEFISH 68
GM 2--BIGFORK 58 RONAN 32

FRIDAY'S GAMES
GIRLS BASKETBALL DIVISIONAL
GM 3--COLUMBIA FALLS VS WHITEFISH 6 PM
GM 4--LIBBY VS BIGFORK 8 PM

Klundt carries Whitefish

By DILLON TABISH/The Daily Inter Lake

Published: Friday, February 27, 2009 1:21 AM CST Whitefish's Kate Klundt came to life after 13 silent minutes, and when it was all finished, she was screaming with joy.

The senior guard scored her team's final eight points, seven from the free throw line, and the Bulldogs edged the Polson Pirates 68-65 in a thrilling first-round basketball game at the Northwestern A girls divisional at Glacier High School on Thursday.

"I've never felt this in my life before. It's the best feeling that I've ever felt," said Klundt, who battled her way to 32 points, 17 rebounds and eight assists despite going scoreless for the first 13 minutes.

The game was knotted at 65-all with 23.8 seconds left before Klundt drew the foul with a drive to the basket. She missed the first free throw, but hit the next three in a span of eight seconds after Polson had to hack. The Bulldogs earned a second-round match with rival Columbia Falls at 6 tonight. Polson plays on Saturday at 10:45 a.m. in the consolation bracket.

"It was the best fourth quarter we've ever played as a team," Klundt said. "There was just so much excitement and even when they got ahead we just believed in each other and kept going."

The Bulldogs trailed 65-60 with 1:35 left but kept their heads on straight and stumped the Pirates offense, which went scoreless from there on out.

The excitement was so overwhelming for Whitefish in the final seconds of the game that it almost cost it after Klundt stole the ball with time winding down and jumped for joy, but with one second still on the clock. The referee called a traveling violation and Polson got one last shot at tying the game, but Cali Hislop's 3-point shot fell just short.

That's when the Bulldogs officially uncorked the celebration.

"It feels amazing," said senior co-captain Torie Powell, who finished with 15 points and seven rebounds. "We've had a tough season all year and it's just a Cindarella story so far."

Olivia Nagler had 10 points and Jessie Slaybaugh chipped in seven for Whitefish.

"The kids played really, really hard," Whitefish coach Tim Olson said. "We've had moments like that all season, but we could never piece together that fourth quarter."

Nicole Davey scored 13 points and Breanne Kelley and Rochelle Woods had 12 apeice for Polson, who jumped ahead right from the start. Kelley was forced to take a seat late in the fourth after drawing her fifth foul.

The Pirates led 29-18 midway through the second quarter and had successfully shadowed Klundt for the entire game, keeping the conference scoring champ quiet.

At that point, Olson called a timeout and huddled his girls on the court.

"We knew Polson was gonna bring it," Olson said. "In the first quarter, we were scared. So we called a timeout and challenged them to come out and to play strong and be the aggressor. And then it really turned into a battle out there."

Klundt came out of the timeout especially aggressive, and scored the next nine Whitefish points. Suddenly, Polson's lead was cut to four and the Bulldogs were back on track.

"Of course, it's not the way we wanted it to end up," Polson coach Randy Kelley said, "but give all the credit to Tim (Olson) and his girls. I thought they played real hard. We just couldn't stop Klundt."

The Bulldogs shot 23-for-28 from the free throw line while the Pirates were 19-for-31.

Klundt made 7-of-9 in the fourth quarter alone.

"She made us pay with layups or from the free throw line and we didn't adjust very well," Kelley said. "She just wanted it a little bit more."

The Bulldogs find themselves playing the top team, who happens to also be their arch rivals - Columbia Falls - who swept the Bulldogs during the regular season.

"Three weeks ago, we lost at Columbia Falls and I told our girls 'You're going to have a chance to play C-Falls again at the divisional tournament. The seeding at the time was setting up for a rematch.' Tonight, we played with a lot of heart and a lot of fire. That's what we're going to need (against Columbia Falls)."

Whitefish 11 20 19 18 - 68

Polson 15 21 11 18 - 65

WHITEFISH - Jessie Slaybaugh 3 0-2 7, Torie Powell 6 3-3 15, Kate Klundt 9 14-17 32, Olivia Nagler 2 6-6 10, Adele FauntLeRoy 2 0-0 4. Totals 22 23-28 68.

POLSON - Staci Benson 2 2-2 7, Sierra Pete 0 2-2 2, Breanne Kelley 4 3-5 12, Rochelle Woods 4 4-7 12, Riley Kenney 1 0-0 2, Nicole Davey 5 3-3 13, Sarah Newton 2 4-6 8, Cali Hislop 3 0-2 8, Loni Havolick 0 1-2 1. Totals 21 19-31 65.

3-point goals - Whitefish 1 (Slaybaugh), Polson 4 (Hislop 2, Benson, Kelley); Total fouls - Whitefish 25, Polson 21; Fouled out - Whitefish (Nagler, Heather Melcer), Polson (Newton, Kelley)

Valkyries drop Maidens in opener

By DIXIE KNUTSON/The Daily Inter Lake

Published: Friday, February 27, 2009 1:21 AM CST Their coach said they had a small case of the jitters.

But the Bigfork Valkyries looked anything but antsy Thursday as they rolled to a 58-32 first round win over the Ronan Maidens at the Northwestern A divisional girls basketball tournament.

In the first quarter alone, the Vals forced 10 first-quarter turnovers, outrebounded the Maidens 12-6 and ran up a 14-2 lead.

The Vals (13-6 overall) led 25-11 at the half and 46-21 after three quarters.

Mallery Knoll led the offensive effort in the early going with eight of Bigfork's first 10 points.

With 14 points for the night, Knoll was one of three Vals to finish the night in double figures. Quinci Paine added 10 points and Roxy Thurman 14. Kailey Fierro was right behind those three with nine points.

"It was nice to come out and get some pressure on them and get a nice start there and get a lot of kids some playing time," said Bigfork coach Mark Hansen.

"We've got a lot of sick girls, so it was nice to get them some rest along the way," he said.

With the win, Bigfork advances to tonight's 8 p.m. semifinal against No. 2 seed Libby (13-5, 8-2).

"Mallery came out and got us going a little bit offensively, Roxy always sets the tone with her defense and I just thought progressively the team - once they got their legs under them - everybody contributed.

"But Roxy is our catalyst in getting everything going. Even if she's not scoring, she's making the pass or getting the break going and or getting the rebound," Hansen said.

But the biggest key was the press and Bigfork worked it to perfection. Unofficially, Ronan had 32 turnovers.

"We've got a lot of quickness up there and we've given (the Maidens' problems in the past with (the press), so we stuck with it," Hansen said.

"We missed a lot of layups, but I think our girls, that first game of the tournament, we're a little nervous and jittery, too," he said.

"Our guards struggled with ball movement today," said Ronan coach Jami Schall.

"I thought having five seniors being ready to come out and play ... but we came out with the jitters and we never really recovered from them," Schall said.

"We switched up some defenses, tried different defenses, but we just couldn't get anything rolling on offense. My girls need confidence on the offensive end to encourage them on the defensive end," she said.

"We kind of got ourselves in a hole in that deal and we need to learn to work through it," she said.

The good news for Ronan is that it did get playing time for some younger girls.

One of those younger girls - freshman Morgan Belgarde - led the Maidens with 17 points.

"Morgan did well offensively for us. She started taking the ball as soon as we started finding her," she said.

"I would have liked to come out with a win, but things didn't go our way and we're looking forward to playing the loser of Whitefish and Columbia Falls (at 10:45 a.m. Saturday at Glacier).

The Vals are looking forward to taking on the Loggers.

"We haven't played very well against them. I give them credit. They've done some things defensively that we've not combatted," Hansen said.

"We need to compete with them on the board. They're very well-coached and their kids do a great job.

"They're patient. We're not. We like to get out and run. We like the big court.

"They're going to try to get us into their mode and we're going to try to get them into our mode," Hansen smiled.

Ronan 2 9 10 11 - 32

Bigfork 14 11 21 12 - 58

Ronan - Ashlee Cheff 1 0-0 2, Kaylee Larson 0 1-4 1, Carli Starkel 1 0-0 3, Alice VanGunten 1 0-0 2, Morgan Belgarde 5 7-8 17, Ashley Gundelamp 1 0-0 3, Tylyn Lefthand 1 0-0 2, Taylor Irvine 0 2-2 2. Totals 10 10-14 32.

Bigfork - Mallery Knoll 6 2-5 14, McKinze Shultz 0 2-2 2, Quinci Paine 3 4-4 10, Quindee Averill 0 1-2 1, Lila Cenis 1 0-0 2, Taylor Peck 0 4-4 4, Roxy Thurman 5 4-5 14, Caitlin Charlebois 1 0-2 2, Kailey Fierro 4 1-1 9.

3-point goals: Ronan 2 (Starkel, Grundelamp), Bigfork 0. Total fouls: Ronan 18, Bigfork 13 fouls. Fouled out: None.