Dogs look to rebound after rivalry blowout

A tough week for the Whitefish boys basketball team was accentuated in a blowout loss at rival Columbia Falls.

The top-rated Wildcats were as good as advertised in handing the Dogs a 73-40 Northwest A loss on Saturday night.

Columbia Falls forced 25 turnovers and outrebounded Whitefish 40 to 20.

“I thought that our effort and initial defensive effort was there and we forced them to miss shots, but where we fell short was on the defensive glass,” Whitefish coach Curtis Green said. “It doesn’t matter who we play, if we give any team two, three, or four opportunities to score in a single possession it will be tough win.”

Columbia Fall (9-2, 4-0) outscored Whitefish in each quarter. Ty Morgan led all scorers with 22 points.

Whitefish was led by Luke May and Jack Streibich, each with 10 points.

Whitefish (4-7, 1-2) also suffered a tough loss 56-45 on Friday against Thompson Falls.

Green is looking for his team to bounce back this Saturday against Polson in another important Northwest A contest.

“We are going to take this week to continue to grow and improve,” he said. “Polson is a good team and we will need to show up with our best basketball to win.”

Tip off is set for 6 p.m. at Whitefish High School.

Whitefish 7 10 9 14 – 40

C. Falls 17 19 15 22 – 73

WHITEFISH – Derek Kastella 3, Brian FauntLeRoy 8, AJ Wetsch 2, Cody Olson 2, Luke May 10, Jack Streibich 10, Chaffin Ross 5.

COLUMBIA FALLS – Trevor Houston 6, Grant Stenger 15, Jayce Fagerland 19, Tyler Murphy 4, Ty Morgan 22, Logan Williams 1, Grant Wallace 6.