Cats lose to Braves, drub Hamilton
Hungry Horse News
The Columbia Falls Wildcat basketball team had a tough time against Flathead last Friday, but bounced back to tromp Hamilton on Saturday.
The Cats lost to AA Flathead 63-56, but turned around to beat the Broncs, 70-45.
The Cats actually made a pretty good run against the Braves, considering they were giving up at least 300 pounds in team weight and several inches in average height. They also spotted Flathead a sizable lead - down 35-19 at the half after a miserable second quarter where they only scored seven points.
But the second half was a different story. The Cats did well with their press and forced some turnovers. They cut the Braves lead to five with a little more than four minutes left, but then the Braves got a steal and drained a trey in the closing minutes to widen the margin back to eight.
Then Columbia Falls just couldn't narrow the gap as time wound down.
Top scorer for the Cats was Steffen Anderson, 16, Kevin Boyer, 15, Guy Smith, 12, Nick Beckwith and Greg Macijunas had six apiece and Robbie Dakin had three.
Against Hamilton, Boyer had 20, Smith, 12, Anderson 11, Dakin, eight, Macijunas seven, Dillon West and Dustin Gibson each had two apiece.
Coach Cary Finberg wasn't pleased with either game, however. He said the boys need to play more as a team in order to have long-term success. Even in the Hamilton win, the Cats had 27 turnovers, he noted.
He noted the squad won't win very many games playing like that. The Cats hope to gel better against Ronan. The Chiefs are young this year - they lost their starters from last year. But the Cats take them for granted, either, Finberg warned.
The Cats just want to get the win and then work out the kinks in their game before entering the heart of the conference season in the coming weeks.
The frosh beat Ronan 67-21 on Monday and are now 3-2 on the season.
Game time for varsity is 8 p.m.
Flathead 63, Columbia Falls 56
Columbia Falls 12 7 13 24 — 56
Flathead 19 16 8 20 — 63
Columbia Falls, 70, Hamilton 45
Columbia Falls 13 18 18 21 70
Hamilton 9 10 16 10 45