Battle between young andmore experienced brings in donations for food bank

The second annual Bigfork Alumni Basketball game raised $807 for the Bigfork Food Pantry on Saturday.

"It's an opportunity to have a good time and raise money for worthy individuals and groups in our community," said Matt Porrovecchio, who established the event last year. "The school gets a lot of support from the community when our activities come calling and I see the alumni game as a way to give back. Additionally, it's a great opportunity for our younger players to connect with all the community members that came before them."

Those attending were treated to a double-header with the alumni women's team taking on this season's Valkyries and the alumni men's team facing off against the Vikings. Bigfork sophomore Taylor Peck served as coach to both of the high school teams since she was unable to play due to her torn ACL. Cid Houtonen, who played in last year's game, coached the women's alumni team and the men's team went without a coach.

A spaghetti dinner hosted by Mark "Mister" Langlois from the Garden Bar and Bruce Solberg from BruMar Estate followed the games at the Bigfork Middle School cafeteria.

Valkyries 68, Women's alumni 67

The Valkyries led the girls game 26-8 at the end for the first quarter. The lopsided game earned the alumni some advantages though as foul calls and possession decisions began going conveniently their way. The alumni women outscored the Vals 16-12 in the second quarter, but in the third the Vals came out on top 14-10. The women used their edge to play some unfair catch-up as they scored an impressive 33 points, and held the Vals to 16 points. It did help that the alumni team cleared the bench for the final minutes of the game, making it an 11-on-7 game and the time keeper held the clock at five seconds so the alumni women could run up their score, but everyone seemed alright with it.

Caitlin Charlebois led the Vals to victory with 22 points, including 13 in the first quarter. She had a total of four 3-pointers and three of those were in the first frame. Mallery Knoll and Quinci Paine backed her up with 16 points apiece. Knoll's points were spread out among the quarters, but Paine had a big fourth quarter with eight points.

The alumni women were led by Paula Meyers, who scored 14 points, including nine in the final frame. Kristen Kinny, Kelly Sinclair and Kendra McAnally each contributed 10 points.

Men's alumni 68, Vikings 50

For the second year in a row, the men's alumni team defeated the Vikings, but this year it was a much closer matchup. The Vikings finished the first quarter on top 18-9, but gave that lead away with 2:54 minutes left in the second quarter when Porrovecchio put in a bucket and made it a 23-21 game in favor of the alumni. The alumni men held a 31-29 lead by halftime, which was extended in the third quarter as they outscored the Vikes 15-12. The boys were unable to dig themselves out from underneath the alumni in the fourth quarter, scoring just nine points to their 22.

The alumni men were led by Casey Bygren and Rod Gembala who each scored 12 points. Bygren scored six of his in the second quarter and Gembala put in six of his during the third in the form of two 3-pointers. Paul Henion was the third highest scorer on the 14-person team with seven points.

Christian Ker was the Vikings' high scorer with 17 points, which included four 3-pointers. Keenan Evans added seven points and Ian Lorang contributed six.