Lady Dogs nipped at buzzer in Polson

The Lady Pirates converted a buzzer-beating tip-in to down the Whitefish girls in a wild 44-42 Northwest A contest last week at Polson.

Polson led 42-41 when Whitefish’s Dani Douglas split her free throws to tie it with 9.1 seconds remaining.

Polson missed a pair of three-point attempts and it looked like the game was heading to overtime, but Lauren Lefthand corralled a rebound and squeezed between two defenders for a putback as time expired.

Whitefish held a 34-21 lead at one point in the third quarter before going ice cold in the final frame. Polson outscored the Lady Dogs 12-3 in the fourth.

“That’s part of the process of maturing,” Whitefish coach Ben Johnson said. “We’re taking shots we don’t need to take and we kept giving them a chance to tie it, and they did.”

Cailyn Ross led Whitefish with 14 points, grabbing missed shots for a handful of putback points. Coral Schulz contributed 12 points, converting from deep four times.

Whitefish (6-12, 1-5) next heads to the Western A tournament in Butte as the No. 3 seed from the Northwest. The girls face Dillon on Wednesday at 7:45 p.m.

Johnson likes the opening match up. He says Dillon has some good shooters, but lacks size in the post.

“Our length could be our advantage,” he said. “Dillon is a good team, but they’re beatable like the rest of us. If we can play defense, that could be the difference.”

He said the team’s mindset is to win the first round and go for a trip to state.

“We feel we can accomplish that,” Johnson said.

Columbia Falls is the top seed from the Northwest, Frenchtown is No. 2 and Polson No. 4.

Whitefish 13 8 18 3 – 42

Polson 9 9 14 12 – 44

WHITEFISH – Cailyn Ross 6 2-4 14, Coral Schulz 12, Dani Douglas 6, Haley Nicholson 4, Makenna Benbrook 3, Annisa Brown 2, Allie Schulz 1. 16 5-16 42

POLSON – Brenna Clarke 13, Nichole Lake 12, Lauren Lefthand 10, Kaelyn Smith 6, Makenna Weltz 3.

3FGs – W5-27 (C.Schulz 4, Benbrook), P1-14 (Lefthand).