It looked a little shaky at first, but Kats get by the Wolves away

Hungry Horse News

Kris Salonen's teams lost every opening game in her first three seasons as coach. With her team in an early 10-2 hole against Cut Bank on Saturday, it looked like her fourth season would be no different.

"I was like, 'Here we go again. Oh no,'" Salonen said.

But the Wildkats basketball team rallied and finished with a strong 68-58 win.

"The girls just finally figured it out and said, 'Hey, we can do this,'" Salonen said.

Columbia Falls (1-0) struggled through the first quarter against Cut Bank's full-court pressure. Before the second quarter, with her team trailing 14-9, Salonen told the girls to be patient and trust the press breaker they had worked on since tryouts.

"In the past that's been the hardest thing for us," she said. "It has really crumbled at times. And I just told them, 'If you run the breaker, they will have to pull it off.'"

The Wildkats responded to Salonen's insistence. They handled the ball better and continually broke the press. That led to easy layups. So, just as Salonen anticipated, Cut Bank (0-1) stopped its press. The score was tied at 31 at the half.

Columbia Falls scored 22 points in the second quarter, in which they nailed three 3-pointers.

Bekah Stoltz hit a momentum-boosting 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer. She finished with a team-high 19 points.

"She's our rock that the other four girls on the court are going to center around," Salonen said.

The Wildkats also had three other players score in double figures. Jenna Toole finished with 13. Kim Pearce and Danielle Herman added 12 and 10, respectively.

Salonen said that kind of scoring distribution is what they will need to win more games this year.

After the half, the Wildkats started to pull away and led 49-45 with one quarter remaining. To make up the deficit, Cut Bank went back to the full-court press. But Columbia Falls resumed its crafty press breaking and cruised to a 10-point victory with some easy baskets and foul shots.

"I'm just really proud of them, and it's something we are going to be able to carry into next weekend," Salonen said.

Columbia Falls travels this weekend to the Western A tourney. At 1:45 p.m. Friday, the Wildkats face Stevensville in Hamilton. Then they play Frenchtown at 11:45 a.m. Saturday in Corvallis.

Salonen said Stevensville is inexperienced in the guard position, so the Wildkats will pressure them. She said she doesn't know much about Frenchtown, except that they lost a six-footer who transferred to Loyola.

But she is confident in her team's ability to get two victories.

"It's just a good weekend to boost our confidence," Salonen said. "For us to start off the season 3-0 instead of 0-3, that's just going to carry us the rest of the way."

Wildkats 68, Wolves 58

Columbia Falls 9 22 18 19 - 68

Cut Bank 14 17 14 13 - 58

Columbia Falls - Callie Spencer 1 1-2 3, Jessica Boyer 1 0-0 2, Jenna Toole 6 1-2 13, Kim Pearce 4 3-5 12, Lindsay Johnson 3 1-4 7, Jessica Davis 1 0-0 2, Bekah Stoltz 6 5-5 19, Danielle Herman 4 2-2 10. Totals: 26 13-20 68.

Cut Bank - Gage 5 1-3 12, Bauer 4 0-5 10, Stanfield 5 8-11 18, Ollinger 3 3-4 12, Wilson 2 0-1 4, Speble 3 0-3 6. Totals: 22 12-14 58.

3-point goals: Pearce, Stoltz (2); Gage, Bauer (2), Ollinger (3) Total fouls: Columbia Falls 22, Cut Bank 24. Fouled out: Stanfield, Ollinger.