Whitefish, Ronan end Vikes' winning-streak

The Vikings varsity basketball team hadn't had to deal with the taste of defeat since Dec. 19, but the boys got a double-dose of it last week when Whitefish knocked them off of their 12-game winning-streak with a 49-27 loss Friday night and Ronan beat them 62-56 in overtime the following night.

"We had a colossal collapse against Whitefish," said Paul LaMott, Bigfork High School head boys basketball coach. "We had just finished winning 12 games in a row going into Whitefish and we had just wrapped up being undefeated in regular season play in District 7B. In all that came with that, the boys sort of showed up thinking that they were just going to roll over Whitefish and to be honest I did too. I was complacent in keeping them mentally sharp and they as players were complacent."

Bigfork (15-3) just couldn't seem to score in Whitefish. As a team, Vikes scored only seven points in every quarter except the second quarter in which they scored just six. Christian Ker was the only Viking to score more than once from the field in a single quarter, and he did so in the first period with five points.

Despite being without one of their leading scorers, Willie Roche who tore his ACL/MCL during a Jan. 16 game, Whitefish was able to rack up 29 points in the first half and another 20 in the second.

"When we got down by 10 points, instead of digging our heals in and fighting, I think that the boys just didn't know what to do," LaMott said. "I think the boys lost that edge that has kept them going all year long. Unfortunately, it resulted in a resounding defeat."

Ker led the Vikings with eight points, which included two 3-pointers. Dillon Fraley contributed five points and Keenan Evans had four.

Starters did not get any playing time in the fourth quarter after they failed to outscore the Bulldogs in the third quarter.

"We told them that if they were unable to win the third quarter then they would be unable to play in the fourth quarter," LaMott said. "Unfortunately, they lost the third quarter by one point, 8-7, so we stuck to what we said we would do."

The Vikings were still playing without junior starter Carter Sorensen, who has missed five of the team's last six games due to a knee injury. However, Tuesday he was given the go-ahead by his doctor to play in the district tournament.

"His lack of presence was definitely noticed last week," LaMott said.

The Vikes not only shot poorly, but their overall presence on the floor was lacking. Travis Knoll was the leading rebounder with five boards followed by Jackson Boese and Lael Richmond with four apiece. Ian Lorang led in assists with three and Evan Jordt and Richmond each had two. Evans, Cody Dopps and Jordt each made two steals.

"We learned a lot from that experience, but unfortunately I don't think it came together quite yet," LaMott said. "When we went to Ronan, we were still dragging — their heads were down. We talked about letting the night (in Whitefish) be what it was, but, unfortunately, it wasn't that way."

Bigfork started out on top in Ronan with a 17-15 lead at the end of the first quarter led by Ker, who scored eight points. But rather than extending that lead as they usually do, the Vikings allowed it to slip to just a one point lead at halftime with a score of 30-29.

"We had a team that very much could have broken away from Ronan and taken a commanding lead, but we just kept letting them back in the game by creating silly turnovers, not catching passes, missing easy shots and layups and just doing the things that happen when a team is not focused. We just couldn't get back into it."

With Jordt putting up six of the team's 10 third-quarter points, the Vikes continued to hold a marginal 40-37 lead going into the fourth quarter.

"They were trapping our guards quite a bit," LaMott said. "We were dribbling into the trap instead of seeing the whole court and moving the ball with the pass. We were trying to dribble our way out of problems and that's a recipe for disaster."

The Chiefs were battling hard and pushed the game into overtime with a shot in the final 15 seconds of the game that left the game tied at 50.

"We played much harder and we played with some heart and some urgency against Ronan, but we just simply couldn't get it done," LaMott said.

Ronan was able to outscore the Vikings 12-6 in the overtime period and take the win.

Lorang led Bigfork with 15 points, including two 3-pointers — one in the first quarter and one in overtime. He did well from the free-throw line, too, making three of his four shots.

Jordt put in 10 points for the Vikings, eight of which came from the field in the second half. Richmond was 4-for-6 from the line and sunk a 3-pointer and one from the middle to account for nine of Bigfork's points. Knoll scored all seven of his points in the first half.

Ker and Richmond were Bigfork's leading rebounders with 11 apiece. Richmond also had five blocks and three steals. Dopps had three steals as well and Knoll had three blocks.

Since the boys had Monday off from school, they spent most of the day together in practice and doing other team-oriented activities which LaMott thinks will help them get past last week's defeats and move on to the district tournament this weekend.

"I can see that the fire is back in their eyes and that they are beginning to realize that this happens, even to great teams," LaMott said. "I feel confident that we will see some success in our district tournament and we'll continue forward after that."

Since the boys are the No. 1 seed going into the District 7B Tournament in Libby this week, they have a bye in the first round. Their first game will be at 3 p.m. Friday against the winner of Thursday's game between Eureka and St. Ignatius. If they win, they will advance directly to the championship game at 8:15 p.m. Saturday.

"We are just looking for a good effort from these kids," LaMott said. "I think that their season can stand alone right now as a successful one, but of course we want to continue on as much as we can."