Vikes snag first conference win against Polson

As the Bigfork High School basketball team heads to the Northwest A Divisional Tournament in Kalispell today as the underdogs, they take with them a new achievement; a conference win. The Vikes beat third-ranked Polson last Tuesday night 59-55, and showed that on any given night any team can take home the win. Bigfork will have to keep that mantra in mind as they enter the tournament as the sixth seed with a 1-9 conference record and a 3-15 overall season record.

In Tuesday night’s victory over the Pirates, Garrett Pewe, who put in a pair of threes and a field goal in the first quarter, helped his team to a 15-13 lead. But that lead was lost in the second quarter when Polson racked up 24 points and held Bigfork to just 12. Bigfork trailed Polson for 10 to 12 points for most of the third quarter despite outscoring their opponent 12-11.

“We showed a lot more patience offensively and didn’t rush the ball,” said Bigfork High School head boys basketball coach Lyle Whiteman. “We had a lot more guys that shot the ball well, too. All that worked out in our favor.”

The Vikings finally made their comeback in the fourth quarter. Bigfork started taking more shots, and more went in. Defensively they turned up their press and kept the Pirates from bringing the ball inside the arc. The Vikings tied it up at 52 with 3:35 left in the game, and a minute later put another one in to take the lead and then a 3-pointer to extend it. Polson answered with a basket of their own, and with less than a minute left Bigfork fouled twice on the play and nearly gave away the victory. Polson was given three shots, which would’ve tied the game, but they missed them all. Bigfork was able to pick up a couple more points at the line in the final seconds, and kept Polson from scoring anything more than one free throw. Ultimately, Bigfork outscored Polson 20-7 in the fourth.

“Karl Tait’s, (Polson’s coach), teams are hard to come back on because they make you expend so much energy on defense,” Whiteman said. “But our kids’ patience and strong focus on defense helped us be able to comeback and keep them from scoring too easily.”

Whiteman said that a lack of patience and focus was what hurt his team in the second quarter Tuesday night, and was also the problem they had when they played in Polson and narrowly missed beating the Pirates in a 42-40 loss.

Pewe led the Vikes with 18 points, including three 3-pointers and he was three-for-four from the free-throw line. Brock Boll contributed 13 and Scott Taylor added nine points, was three-for-four from the line and had 17 rebounds. Zac Hansen scored nine points, which included a pair of threes in the second half. Donny Tudahl put in six points in the decisive fourth quarter.

The Vikes have now beaten a Class AA team, Flathead, a Class B team, Mission, and a Class A team.

“This to me was a more satisfying win because it was a competitive team that has faired well all season,” Whiteman said.

Despite their victory early in the week, Bigfork lost to a team Thursday night that has also had a rough season. The Vikes hosted Columbia Falls (4-5) for their Senior Night and last regular season game.

The Cats took control of the game from the tipoff with a 3-pointer and racked up another 17 during the first quarter while holding the Vikings to just five. Led by Jake Milner, Bigfork played more aggressive defense in the second quarter and caused a couple of turnovers that they were able to turn into baskets. Hansen gave Bigfork the momentum for a second quarter 12-5 run when he put up a layup and then capitalized on a Polson turnover and took the ball back to Bigfork’s hoop for a crowd-pleasing dunk. Ultimately, Bigfork outscored Columbia Falls 12-9 in the second and closed the gap to 12 by the end of the first half.

“They jumped up on us so early,” Whiteman said. “We had some turnovers and we gave up some easy shots. We settled in and kept them from jumping ahead even further.”

Bigfork let their game slip again in the third as they scored just one field goal and overall allowed the Cats to score 16 to their 11. Columbia Falls put up 26 fourth quarter points and took away any chance for Bigfork, who scored 14, to make a fourth quarter comeback.

“Overall I thought we played pretty well,” Whiteman said. “I think by the fourth quarter some of our players had lost some of their competitiveness.”

Taylor led the Vikings with 10 points, eight of which he scored in the fourth quarter, and he grabbed eight rebounds. Milner was six-of-nine from the line. He scored a total of eight points and grabbed five rebounds. Boll had eight points, all but two of which came from his perfect six-for-six shooting from the line. Hansen had seven points and Pewe had five points and three assists. Freshman Ian Lorang, who got his first taste of varsity play in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, had two steals, as did Boll.

Bigfork’s free-throw shooting improved greatly this week as they shot 60 percent from the line against Polson and 68 percent during the Columbia Falls game.

Bigfork kicks off the tournament today, Feb. 26, at 4 p.m. against the third-seeded Polson Pirates at Glacier High School. If the Vikes win they will play second-seeded Libby on Friday night at 4 p.m. at Glacier. If they lose they will play at 9 a.m. Saturday in the consolation bracket at Glacier. A victory over Polson and Libby would send the Vikes to the championship game 6 p.m. Saturday at Glacier.

“I think that the opportunity is there for us to get one or two wins,” Whiteman said. “I think the kids feel confident too. It just depends how the kids show up to play. I can always count on them to play hard on defense, but they don’t always play hard or smart on offense.”