Dogs open with slam dunk over Eureka

The shots were falling right away for the Dogs in their season-opening 72-36 thrashing of Eureka.

Whitefish opened the game with a 17-1 run over the Lions, including a one-handed slam by Lee Walburn on a fast break to ignite the crowd. The Dogs led 28-5 after one quarter and opened that up to a 44-13 lead at the half.

Eureka kept the next two quarters close, trailing just 28-23 in second-half scoring, but the big lead opened early on was too much to overcome.

Both Walburn and Ryan Kemm tallied 17 points for the Dogs. Alex Keuylian added 12 and Sam Menicke and Dillon Botner both grabbed eight rebounds each.

That scoring trend ran out over the weekend, however, as the Bulldogs fell to Dillon and Butte Central at the Tip-Off Tournament in Missoula over the weekend.

Whitefish scored only five points in the second quarter and two points in the fourth in a 50-31 loss to Dillon, and the Bulldogs didn’t crack double-digit scoring in a single quarter in a 55-20 blowout against Butte.

“Definitely some growing pains as expected this early in the year,” head coach Sean Duff said. “But we still believe we are a good team and can have a successful season.”

Whitefish will get back at it this week with a Northwest A conference opener in Polson on Friday before hosting Browning on Saturday.

Whitefish will play at 7:30 p.m. in Polson and 6:30 p.m. at Whitefish High School on Saturday.

Eureka 5 8 14 9 — 36

Whitefish 28 16 19 9 — 72

EUREKA — Austin Callender 2, AJ Pacella 13, Quade Anderson 6, Colton Cooper 5, Alex Lowe 1, Jake Kindel 9.

WHITEFISH — Alex Keuylian 12, Caleb Meehan 2, Brendyn Peacock 6, Mark Anderson 4, Sam Menicke 6, Ryan Kemm 17, Lee Walburn 17, Dillon Botner 8.

Dillon 18 10 10 12 — 50

Whitefish 13 5 11 2 — 31

Dillon: Michael Haverfield 26, A Lemieux 9, J Fitzgerald 6, C Allison 5, B Rakich 2, T Walker 2.

Whitefish: Dillon Botner 10, Lee Walburn 9, Sam Menicke 8, M Anderson 4.

Butte Central 19 12 16 8 — 55

Whitefish 6 3 7 4 — 20

Butte Central: Luke Heaphy 13, Matt Simkins 12, Dan McCloskey 12, Cade Holter 6, Braden Harrington 5, Trevor Neumann 3, Aaron Richards 2, Dylan Sestrich 2.

Whitefish: Alex Keuylion 5, Ryan Kemm 4, Lee Walburn 4, Sam Menicke 3, Noah Fauth 2, Mark Anderson 2.