Lady Bulldogs hold own against CFalls

Columbia Falls has delivered some tough loses to the Lady Bulldogs on the court over recent years, but Thursday was a different scene.

Heading into the fourth quarter Whitefish was up by two points, but the Wildkats got on a streak and led 48-41 with just over a minute remaining. Whitefish seniors Ashton Ramsey and Gracie Smyley hit back-to-back threes to cut the deficit to one point but the Bulldogs weren’t able to score again, falling to the Kats 48-47.

“We’ve had really tough problems with [Columbia Falls] in the past and were hoping for a better outcome this time,” Whitefish head coach Bob Bolam said. “And we were right there, we played even with them throughout. A very tough, scrappy battle in that one.”

Smyley and Ramsey each had outstanding offensive games, scoring 18 and 16 points respectively.

Last week the Lady Bulldogs also faced Corvallis at home and then Hamilton on the road.

On Tuesday, Jan. 12, Whitefish picked up a massive win over Corvallis, 56-43. The girls jumped out to a hot start, outscoring the Blue Devils 15-6 in the opening eight minutes, and never really looked back.

“We controlled that game from the beginning to the end, they got close at one point but our girls did a pretty good job of staying the course and hitting some big shots,” Bolam said.

Smyley led her team with 22 points and fellow senior Mikenna Ells dropped 12 points for Whitefish.

Against Hamilton on Saturday, Whitefish had a tough day on offense losing 35-27. The girls stuck right with the Broncs and led by one going into the fourth quarter. Bolam says he was proud his team hung with the Hamilton squad defensively, but unfortunately they struggled all night finding the bottom of the hoop.

“It was good to see us hold them down defensively because they’re an explosive team with a lot of speed and run stuff really well, but we just couldn’t put the ball in the basket,” he said.

Despite going 1-2 last week, Bolam said there were a lot of positives to come out of the week. In addition to the leading scorers in the games, Bolam is impressed with the improvement senior Brook Smith is showing. He said she’s always on the offensive board, plays intense defense inside the paint and is starting to find the hoop as well.

Also he was glad to see his team be mentally tough against a historically great Columbia Falls team, and show the confidence that they could play right along with them.

“They had to get over the mental part of playing Columbia Falls after getting beat down so much for many years,” Bolam commented. “We never seemed intimidated, we played really hard and we hung right in there through the whole game. It was good to see and hopefully that trend continues.”

This week the Lady Dogs are set to host Libby at home on Friday at 7:15 p.m. and then travel to Polson on Saturday to take on the Lady Pirates.

Whitefish 15 15 16 10 - 56

Corvallis 6 17 12 8 - 43

WHITEFISH - Gracie Smyley 22, Mikenna Ells 12, Brook Smith 8, Jadi Walburn 7, Ashton Ramsey 7.

CORVALLIS - Madi Gilder 17, Savannah Jessop 13, Kaitlyn Behner 5, Kaitlyn Widom 5, Tylin Sorensen 2, Brooke Bowell.

Whitefish 9 10 15 13 - 47

Columbia Falls 8 15 9 16 - 48

WHITEFISH - Jadi Walburn 4, Erin Wilde 2, Ashton Ramsey 16, Mikenna Ells 5, Gracie Smyley 18, Brooke Smith 2.

COLUMBIA FALLS - Maddie Robison 19, Grace Gedlaman 11, Hope McAtee 5, Hannah Schweikert 5, Lauren Falkner 3, LaKia Hill 3, Alexis Green 2.

Hamilton 6 5 9 15 35

Whitefish 6 6 9 6 27

Stats were not available for this game.