Vikes lose to Columbia Falls, Polson

It was another disappointing week for Bigfork’s varsity boys basketball team, as they lost to Columbia Falls, 80-41 and narrowly missed getting their first conference win of the season against Polson in a 42-40 loss.

Saturday night’s game in Polson was the closer of the two matches for the Vikings. Bigfork put up 10 points in the first quarter and Polson scored 13. The Vikings outscored their opponent in the second with 11 points, including a 3-pointer by Zac Hansen, to the Pirates seven. The game stayed close in the third with Bigfork scoring 11 points and Polson scoring 12.

“We gave up a number of backside layups,” said BHS head boys basketball coach Lyle Whiteman. “We did a good job offensively, but defensively we lost our man a lot in the first half. It got better in the second half. We just kept improving throughout the game. We did a good job defensively of keeping the score down, too.”

The fourth quarter, and consequently the game, was decided on the free-throw line. Both teams scored eight points from the field. Bigfork was given five shots from the foul line and Polson was given six. The Vikings missed every one of theirs, Polson made two of theirs and ultimately won the game by two points.

“We made some offensive changes trying to open up a little more,” Whiteman said. “We did a good job with that, but toward the end the pressure caused us to not know exactly what to do. We were caught in between the old way and the new way we were trying to play our offense. We didn’t perform real well down the stretch.”

Scott Taylor and Brock Boll led Bigfork with 11 points and seven rebounds and 10 points and 10 rebounds, respectively. Taylor also had one assist and two steals, and Boll had one steal and one block. Garrett Pewe scored eight points, grabbed four rebounds, made four assists and one steal.

“I thought we overcame some challenges,” Whiteman said. “I was proud of them for hanging in there and keeping their focus. We missed some scoring opportunities though and didn’t get into our offense like we should have.”

Against Columbia Falls, Jake Milner and Taylor scored Bigfork’s only points in the first quarter, putting up four each, while Columbia Falls racked up 22. The Vikings had their biggest quarter in the second, scoring 16 points, led by Taylor’s seven, and Boll’s six — his only points of the night. However, their efforts were no match for Columbia Falls, who scored another 23 points prior to half-time. Milner and Taylor were the only Bigfork players to score in the third period with a combined seven points, and Columbia Falls scored 26. Bigfork was again outscored in the fourth, 13-10.

“They’re a really good ball club,” Whiteman said. “They played really well, really hard and shot really well. They just outplayed us. We were just a step behind them the whole game. We got down a lot early in the game and lost our confidence and any ability to stay in the game.”

Taylor led Bigfork with 13 points, 15 rebounds and three steals.

“He’s rebounding even better than he was earlier this season,” Whiteman said of Taylor. “When he gets offensive rebounds he is putting them back up and scoring at a higher percentage than he was earlier this season. He is playing with more confidence and the other players are more confident in him and are looking to get the ball to him more often.”

Milner had 12 points, three assists and two steals. Pewe had five points, all in the fourth quarter, and two assists.

The Bigfork boys travel to Plains today, Feb. 5, host Libby tomorrow night and Mission on Saturday.