Whitefish loses heartbreaker play-in game to Wildcats
Whitefish's Talon Holmquist drives baseline against Columbia Falls in a divisional play-in game Monday night. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)
Whitefish junior Logan Conklin makes a move toward the hoop against Columbia Falls in a divisional play-in game Monday night. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)
Bulldog Marvin Kimera out on the fastbreak against Columbia Falls in a divisional play-in game Monday night. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)
Whitefish head coach Scott Smith talks to his team during the fourth quarter of a divisional play-in game against Columbia Falls Monday night. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)
Whitefish players Marvin Kimera (22) and Jayce Cripe (34) close in on Logger Jay Beagle to force a turnover in a game on Thursday evening. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)
Whitefish's Bodie Smith finds some room in the lane as he looks for a layup against Libby on Thursday. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)
Bulldog senior Jayce Cripe puts up a shot after making a quick move to get around a Libby defender on Thursday. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)
Whitefish junior Talon Holmquist (55) rises up for a shot over Libby's Cy Stevenson in the fourth quarter of a home game against the Loggers on Thursday. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)
It just wasn’t the Bulldogs night.
Open shots clanked and floaters in the lane rattled out as Whitefish saw its season come to an end. Columbia Falls shattered the Dogs hopes for a divisional berth as the Wildcats came out on top 58-43 in a postseason play-in game Monday night.
Whitefish got out to a slow offensive start, but finished the second quarter on a slight scoring streak to cut Columbia Falls’ lead to 11 points at the half. Columbia Falls managed to get out on the fast break often in the first half to score before Whitefish’s defense could set up.
To start the second half the Wildcats came out hot, racking up an 18-point lead early in the third quarter. Whitefish responded and, behind a huge second half performance from big man Talon Holmquist, the Bulldogs cut the lead to just 10 points midway through the fourth quarter.
That was as close as they were able to get though. Whitefish had to foul late in the game to try to get possession of the ball back, but were unable to convert on a number of shots in the final two minutes.
A mix of emotions strained the faces along the Whitefish bench as the clock ticked down and they knew their season was over.
Bodie Smith led the way for Whitefish with 17 points in the game, but Bulldog senior standout Jayce Cripe was held to just two points. Cripe was often double-teamed by the Columbia Falls defense and the Wildcats certainly had his number.
Whitefish did shoot well from the free throw line at 78% as Columbia Falls struggled from the line shooting just 47%.
Although that ending was not the way the Bulldogs wanted to go out, they can hang their hats on a 7-9 overall record after recovering from a tough 1-5 season start.
Last week to finish up the regular season Whitefish went 2-1, which gave them the higher seed going into the divisional play-in game against CFalls.
Whitefish avenged their 25-point loss against Ronan from the week prior by knocking off the Chiefs 50-42 on Feb. 16. The Dogs were led by Bodie Smith with 17 points, Jayce Cripe checked in with 13 and Talon Holmquist had 11. Whitefish outscored Ronan 19-6 in the second quarter giving them a hearty lead early on.
On Thursday Whitefish hosted Libby and lost a close one to the Loggers 43-36. Both teams struggled to score early on and Whitefish forced a slew of turnovers from Libby, but couldn’t capitalize at the other end. Libby had a big fourth quarter led by a game-high 19 points from Caden Williams, which sealed the deal for the visiting team.
Saturday Whitefish played its third game of the week against Browning and squeaked by with a two-point win over the Indians 53-51. Cripe led the way in that one with 19 points and Bodie Smith was close behind him scoring 17 points.
Whitefish finished the season 7-9 overall, 4-7 in league play.
Whitefish’s season fell just short of their goal to qualify for the Western A Divisional Tournament.
Col. Falls 14 17 13 14 - 58
Whitefish 9 11 10 13 - 43
COLUMBIA FALLS - Cade Morgan 3, Mason Peters 7, Alihn Anderson 18, Jace Hill 12, Cooper Babcock 3, Allec Knapton 13, Aaron Trueblood 2.
WHITEFISH - Bodie Smith 17, Logan Conklin 8, Marvin Kimera 2, Trey Hunt 2, Jayce Cripe 2, Talon Holmquist 12.
Ronan 7 6 12 17 - 42
Whitefish 8 19 14 9 - 50
RONAN – Ruben Couture 2, Germit Detwiler 11, Zarec Couture 2, Elijah Tonasket 18, Leonard Burke 6, Marlo Tonasket 3.
WHITEFISH – Bodie Smith 17, Logan Conklin 2, Trey Hunt 4, Orion Moore 3, Jayce Cripe 13, Talon Holmquist 11.
Libby 6 6 14 17 – 43
Whitefish 7 8 10 11 – 36
LIBBY – Ryder Davis 3, Cy Stevenson 2, Jay Beagle 7, Caden Williams 19, Ryker McElmurry 2, TJ Anderson 10.
WHITEFISH – Bodie Smith 10, Logan Conklin 3, Marvin Kimera 4, Jayce Cripe 10, Talon Holmquist 9.
Browning 6 16 11 18 – 51
Whitefish 12 8 12 20 – 53
BROWNING – Cody Carlson 13, Thunder Smith 1, Joseph Bullshoe 9, Maurice Redhorn 6, Jesse Carlson 7, Luke Juneau 10, Braydes Vielle 2, Tommy Runningrabbit 3.
WHITEFISH – Bodie Smith 17, Marvin Kimera 1, Logan Conklin 3, Trey Hunt 2, Orion Moore 3, Jayce Cripe 19, Talon Holmquist 8.
