Boys hoopers win one, drop two in busy week
The Bulldogs won one of three games last week, dropping the other two in close road battles.
On Tuesday the Bulldogs couldn’t hold on against the Ronan Chiefs, falling 58-55 in the road game.
Despite leading 36-27 at the half, Whitefish only managed 5 points in the third quarter.
They trailed 43-41 heading into the fourth and again were outscored 15-14 in the final 8 minutes.
Bodie Smith put up a game-high 20 points, while Justin Conklin added 12.
The Dogs got back on track Thursday, taking down the Eureka Lions 49-34.
Whitefish overcame a slow first quarter, in which they only scored 7 points, with a 22-point second quarter.
That opened up a 29-20 halftime lead, which the Bulldogs extended 20-14 in the second half.
Talon Holmquist led all scorers with 17 points, while Smith added 14 points of his own.
On Saturday the team dropped another close one to Hamilton 51-41.
Head coach Scott Smith said it was an up-and-down week for his kids, and the exhaustion showed by the end of the week.
“At times we played really well, and at times we just didn’t execute the things we needed to do, the fundamentals,” he said. “Towards the end of the week you could see we played three games in the week.”
Moving forward, Smith said consistency and attention to detail are what’s going to help his team close out those tight games.
guys to finish those close games?
“Some of it is just the little things. You go back and look at the games, and we just didn’t do some little fundamentals and we allow them an open shooter or a second chance opportunity,” he said. “It’s just closing in on the little things, and in the games we’ve won we’ve been able to do that.”
This week the team will get its second look at the Polson Pirates, who they defeated earlier in the season, on Friday at 7 p.m.
“They’re a talented team. They’re bigger than what we are. We have the bigs to match for the most part, but they have shooters. If we let them start heating up, it could be a long night for us,” Smith said.
Whitefish 22 14 5 14 — 55
Ronan 14 13 16 15 — 58
WHITEFISH — Bodie Smith 20, Justin Conklin 12, Jayce Cripe 9, Sam Menicke 8, Talon Holmquist 6.
Whitefish 7 22 11 9 — 49
Eureka 10 10 6 8 — 34
WHITEFISH — Talon Holmquist 17, Bodie Smith 14, Jayce Cripe 9, Sam Menicke 4, Garett Brock 1.