Dogs take fourth at Northwest A tourney
A roller-coaster season for the Whitefish boys basketball team ended with a dip at the Northwest A divisional tournament.
The No. 3 seed Bulldogs went 1-2 as tournament hosts to place fourth and out of the State A tournament for the sixth consecutive season.
The disappointing result wasn’t for a lack of effort. The Dogs battled hard in each of their three games, but couldn’t find a consistent shooting touch all weekend.
“We are extremely proud of our effort this weekend,” Whitefish coach Curtis Green said. “Offensively, we struggled to get shots to fall.”
Whitefish opened with a tough 44-40 loss to No. 2 Polson.
The Pirates owned the paint and took a commanding 24-14 lead into the half before the Dogs mounted a late rally. Senior AJ Wetsch caught fire in the fourth and converted two and-1 buckets to cut Polson’s lead with 1:30 to go.
Luke May drained a 3-pointer with 50 seconds left to keep the margin at three, but the Pirates managed to hang on in the end.
The loss sent the Dogs to the consolation bracket where they faced Libby bright and early on Saturday morning.
Whitefish led from start to finish in dispatching the Loggers 46-38.
Junior Brian FauntLeRoy had an impressive game scoring on three consecutive chances in the fourth quarter to keep the Dogs in front. Wetsch dropped 19 points to lead the team.
In the consolation championship against Frenchtown, Whitefish was outscored in each quarter as the Broncs rolled to a 55-41 win.
Wetsch had 12 points and senior Jack Streibich added 8.
Whitefish finished the season 9-12 overall.
Green commended the seniors for their leadership in the up and down season.
“Our seniors this year set a great example to our younger players with their hard work and dedication they displayed with all the new changes we have made,” Green said.
“Change is hard and doesn’t happen overnight. We feel the program is heading in the right direction, and over time we will continue to grow and build upon the previous year’s successes.”
Green plans to host basketball camps this summer for fifth through eighth grade, and high school players, as well.
Polson 13 11 10 10 – 44
Whitefish 8 6 12 14 – 40
POLSON – Wyatt Ducharme 2, Chris McDonald 2, Payton Lefthand 1, Derek Peel 5, Tanner Wilson 16, Andrew Curley 2, Joe Gallatin 1, Matthew Rensvold 15.
WHITEFISH – Derek Kastella 4, Brian FauntLeRoy 1, AJ Wetsch 13, Cody Olson 4, Luke May 12, Jack Streibich 2, Chaffin Ross 4.
Whitefish 8 12 10 11 – 41
Frenchtown 9 16 11 19 – 55
WHITEFISH – AJ Wetsch 12, Cody Olson 8, Jack Streibich 8, Luke May 4, Brian FauntLeRoy 2, Chaffin Ross 7.
FRENCHTOWN – Bridger Truett 19, Chris Delaney 10, Austin Means 8, Andrew King 6, Jacob Price 5, Robert Jones 5, Kyle Smith 2
Libby 6 13 11 8 – 38
Whitefish 10 13 10 13 – 46
LIBBY – Luke Adamson 3, Jonny Cielak 10, Collin Johnson 13, Colin Maloney 2, Erik Lauer 4, Michael Curtiss 6.
WHITEFISH – Derek Kastella 2, Brian FauntLeRoy 8, AJ Wetsch 19, Cody Olson 4, Luke May 5, Jack Streibich 6, Chaffin Ross 2.