Last-second shot puts Cats over Loggers
Hungry Horse News
The drama continues.
The Wildcat basketball team avenged an earlier loss by edging Libby with a last-second shot 67-65 last week.
With 2.7 seconds left and the score tied, the Cats' Kevin Boyer did a nice inbound fake, Greg Macijunas set a nice pick, and Anthony Minson put in the shot as time expired.
"It was a lot easier than we thought we were going to get," coach Cary Finberg said of Minson's last shot.
The Cats had another tough time holding the lead. They were up 55-49 with about a minute to go when Libby hit a three. The Cats then turned the ball over on the next possession, and Libby dropped another three to tie it.
"Our concern right now is learning to keep a lead and get some stops on defense," Finberg said. "But we're winning the close games and making the plays in the end."
The Cats are now 13-2 overall and 6-1 in conference play with three conference games left. Libby is still in second place at 6-3.
The conference gets interesting in the middle, with Bigfork, Ronan and Polson all at 3-3.
All the Cats' three remaining conference games are away, and they can't afford to give an inch.
"We're playing good basketball for the most part," Finberg said. "If we play like we've been playing and clean some things up, we can get the job done."
They face Polson Saturday night at 5 p.m. and then Bigfork and Ronan next week to wrap up the regular season.
Polson played the Cats well here a few weeks ago. The game was closer than the score suggested.
The Cats had one big quarter in that matchup. Previous games against Bigfork and Ronan were also tight.
The Cats beat Ronan in overtime, and the Bigfork game was decided in the last minute as well.
In short, there are no gimme games down the stretch.
Top scorer for the Cats was Drew Perry with 21, followed by Anthony Minson with 16, Kevin Boyer nine, Guy Smith six, Jace Ladenburg six, Nick Beckwith five, and J.D. Fields four.
Guy Smith had six rebounds, Fields had five assists, and Perry had four steals. Perry shot 8 for 12, and Minson was 8 for 13.
"They were very efficient on the offensive end," Finberg said.
In other action, the JV team beat Libby 50-35 and the Froshmore team beat them 59-33.
Columbia Falls, 67, Libby 65
Columbia Falls 15 25 13 14 67
Libby 14 21 18 12 65