Cats take first in conference in dramatic fashion
Hungry Horse News
They're the sort of games fans love, but will have coaches drinking Maalox for breakfast.
Even so, they both added up for wins for the Columbia Falls basketball team last week, as they beat Bigfork 76-67 and Ronan 71-64 in overtime.
Both games came down to the final minute. The Ronan game came down to the final seconds, when Drew Perry hit a clutch three-pointer at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.
"From my angle," coach Cary Finberg said, "I knew it was off. The only chance it had was to bank in."
And bank in it did.
"I might go buy him a Lottery ticket or something," Finberg said.
Perry hit a similar shot against Frenchtown last year in the final second to win a game for the Cats.
But by all rights, the Cats shouldn't have been there in the first place. The had a nine-point lead against Ronan in the third quarter. Ronan, however, had a 17-point swing, going from down nine to up eight as the final minutes of the game closed in.
The Cats got back in it and, with six seconds left, cut the lead to three. The problem there was they had to foul the Chiefs seven times with less than a minute to play-the Cats hadn't fouled them at all in the half. Ronan then missed its free throws to set up the last second shot by Perry.
Against Bigfork, the Cats had a 15-point lead in the third. But the Cats let that one slip away as well. With about 3:37 left, Bigfork had cut that margin to one. The margin was one again with about a minute left. The Cats got another score in the closing 40 seconds, but Bigfork was looking to tie it with a three when Guy Smith stole the ball, passed it to Perry and Perry put in the layup.
Smith would get another steal and get fouled to seal the win. He also had a big steal against Ronan in overtime. The Cats were up by just one when he got a steal and was fouled, draining the two free throws.
The Cats were solid from the line. They went 19 for 28 against the Vikes and 18 for 23 against the Chiefs, including 10 for their first 10 in overtime.
Top scorers against Bigfork were Kevin Boyer with 23, Perry, 21, Guy Smith 10, Anthony Minson eight, J.D. Fields six, Greg Macijunas four, Jace Ladenburg two, and Nick Beckwith two.
Against Ronan, Boyer 19, Fields 14, Smith 14, Minson 11, Perry nine, and Steffen Anderson and Beckwith two apiece.
Minson had eight boards and seven assists, and Smith had six boards and five assists against the Vikings. Perry also had five assists.
Against Ronan, Boyer and Smith had five boards apiece. Perry had six assists, and Fields had seven assists.
The wins put the Cats at 6-1 in conference, in first place. The Libby Loggers are 5-2 in second, and Ronan is 3-2. The Cats are 12-2 overall.
They face the Loggers at home tonight (Thursday). Game time is 7:30 p.m. A win against the Loggers would put the Cats in command of the conference, with only one loss and three regular season games left to play.
The JV beat Ronan 62-44 and Bigfork 71-47. The frosh beat Bigfork 60-47.
On Tuesday, the Cats found themselves having to come back again-but this time it was in Whitefish. They went down 16-9 in the first quarter, but they scored a whopping 29 points in the second quarter and ended up hammering the rival Dogs for the second time this year, 75-45.
Whitefish has yet to win a game.
Scorers were Justin Heinrichs nine, Fields eight, Perry four, Boyer eight, Robbie Dakin nine, Anderson two, Smith nine, Dillon West two, Ladenburg 11, Minson 11, and Macijunas two.
Wildcats 76, Vikings 67
Bigfork 18 10 21 18 67
C. Falls 24 15 16 21 76
Wildcats 71, Chiefs 64, OT
Ronan 17 11 15 16 5 64
C.Falls 17 16 10 16 12 71
Wildcats 75, Dogs 45
Whitefish 16 7 7 15 45
C.Falls 9 29 20 17 75