Lady Bulldogs finish strong

The progress was slow, but steady for

the Lady Bulldogs basketball team this season, which capped off

their year with a strong showing at the Northwestern A divisional

basketball tourney last weekend in Ronan.

“We finally put it all together and

played some of our best basketball of the year,” Whitefish coach

Sean Duff said.

Led by eight points from Olivia Nagler,

the No. 5 seeded Whitefish team opened with a thrilling 23-22 win

against Ronan. The Lady ‘Dogs put in nine points in the third

quarter to take a lead and then fended off a late push by the

Maidens to move into the championship bracket.

Against top-seeded Columbia Falls,

Whitefish put up as good of an all-around performance as they have

this season.

Brooke Silliker led with 12 points, and

Shannon and Simone Craft chipped in seven points to keep Whitefish

within earshot of a major upset.

An impressive display of defense held

the Wildkats’ top scorer, Kayla DeWit, to just 16 points, but

Columbia Falls eventually put the game away in a 37-26 victory.

“We did a great job on Kayla and took

her out of her game a little bit,” Duff said.

On Saturday, Whitefish squared off with

Polson in the consolation game. The Lady Pirates opened a big lead

with 28 total points in the first half, too much for Whitefish to

overcome, as Polson rolled ahead 56-32.

Nine Bulldogs made their mark on the

score sheet, led by six points each from Olivia Curtiss and Jessica

Poe. Each of the Craft girls chipped in five points, a duo that

could lead the team in the years to come along side a number of

up-and-coming underclassmen.

“We’ll look for big things out of these

young girls next year,” Duff said.

Whitefish graduates four seniors

including Olivia Nagler, Jenna Rose Hanson, Heather Bailey and

Olivia Curtiss.

“We’ll miss our seniors,” Duff said.

“They did some good things for the program.”