Cats top Dogs in battle for first

A shootout turned into a blowout Saturday as the Columbia Falls boys basketball team ran away with a 78-59 victory over the Whitefish Bulldogs in a battle for sole possession of first place in the conference.

Whitefish couldn’t get critical stops down the stretch and was outscored 39-24 in the second half.

“They put some pressure on us and we didn’t handle it,” Whitefish coach Mark Casazza said.

The Bulldogs fell to 5-2 in Northwestern A play and 10-6 overall.

A barrage of treys kept the Dogs close in the early going at Columbia Falls.

Whitefish opened the game with three consecutive 3-pointers to keep pace in the first quarter.

Hustle kept them within reach in the second frame.

Senior guard Cooper Olson dove for a loose ball early in the quarter. He knocked it to teammate Keaton Nicholson, who saved it from going out of bounds and passed it back to Olson for an easy layup. That play made the score 20-21.

Art Doorn hit a long jumper and Olson cashed another trey to make it 31-32 with a minute left in the second, but that’s as close as the Dogs would get.

Columbia Falls came out of the break on a 8-0 run to open a nine point lead.

A nice bounce pass from Olson to Jace Kalbfleisch on a fastbreak kept the lead at nine. Kalbfleisch then worked hard on the glass and scored a putback after three consecutive rebounds to make it 44-52 at the end of three.

The Cats opened the fourth on a 10-0 run to put the game away.

Olson led the Dogs with 14 points. Harwood chipped in with 12 and Doorn added 10.

On Thursday, Whitefish played near perfect basketball in an 80-37 win over Plains. The Bulldogs had zero turnovers in the rout.

Olson dropped in 28 points and hit four of the team’s 10 3-pointers on the night.

“We shot the lights out,” Casazza said. “We did everything right.”

Whitefish hosts Polson Feb. 16 at 6 p.m.

Wfish — 18 17 9 15 — 59

C-Falls — 21 18 15 24 — 78

WHITEFISH — Keaton Nicholson 9, EJ Havens 8, Logan Harwood 12, Jace Kalbfleisch 6, Art Doorn 10, Cooper Olson 14.

COLUMBIA FALLS – Alex Presnell 23, Trevor Houston 4, Austin Martin 4, Colin King 6, Luke Kazlauskas 24, Ty Morgan 11, Jared Trinastich 6.

Plains 12 10 9 6 – 37

Whitefish 16 34 19 11 – 80

PLAINS – Aaron Baker 7, Kyle Revier 2, Dallas Burgess 8, Wyatt Winebrenner 4, Jeremiah Crawford 16.

WHITEFISH – Keaton Nicholson 9, EJ Havens 7, Cody Olson 3, Brandon Maassen 6, Logan Harwood 11, Jace Kalbfleisch 3, Art Doorn 9, Cooper Olson 28, Jake May 4