Bulldogs punch ticket to state tourney
David Erickson / Whitefish Pilot
By DAVID ERICKSON
Whitefish Pilot
It’s always a thriller with the Bulldogs.
For the second year in a row, the Whitefish boys basketball team has faced a win-or-go-home challenge game and risen to the occasion.
On Monday night, the ‘Dogs edged a fiesty Polson team 45-41 in a thrilling divisional tournament play-in game to claim the No. 2 berth from Northwestern A.
“There’s seven seniors on this team, and we all knew it might be the last 32 minutes of basketball we ever played together,” senior co-captain David FauntLeRoy said. “We just stepped up to the pressure.”
FauntLeRoy had the game of his life, scoring a game-high 16 points. He picked up the slack for several of his teammates, who struggled to find the hole.
“It’s very similar,” Faunt LeRoy said of last year’s challenge-game win over Columbia Falls. “For some of these guys, it’s the third year in a row we’ve been in a do-or-die situation. Being in those games helped. We’re a tight-knit group. It wasn’t our best effort. This game was a little closer than we wanted, but we played great defense, and our offense clicks when we play good defense.”
The conference’s leading scorer, Colt Idol, battling a head cold, was held to only nine points.
Josh Backer had 10 points, including three huge free-throws at the end of the game to seal the win.
Polson nearly took the lead with 43 seconds left in the game, but a 3-pointer by Waylon Michel bounced out of the rim as the Polson fans went crazy with frustration.
The game was tied at 41-all with 1:20 left, but Backer took the game into his hands and didn’t disappoint.
The game was a defensive struggle, as Whitefish struggled with their in-bounds passing and could never find a rhythm on offense. They managed to tighten up on defense when it counted, however, in the final minute of the game.
Matt Whitehead finished with six points, while Aaron Tkachyk was held to just two points, as was Connor Silliker.
Whitefish came into the tournament as the No. 1 seed and riding a 12-game win streak, but they were upset by Columbia Falls on Friday afternoon to fall into the consolation bracket.
They then defeated both Bigfork and Libby on Saturday to move into the challenge game with Polson.
The Bulldogs will now follow Columbia Falls to the state tournament in Great Falls, beginning March 12.
Their path to the championship game will be more difficult than for the Wildcats, as the Bulldogs will be the No. 2 seed from Northwest A.
The Bulldogs will face Dillon in the first round of the divisional tournament. Whitefish beat Dillon 68-47 in the tip-off tournament earlier in the season, but the team is much improved from earlier in the year.
Columbia Falls will play Corvallis.
“We have two weeks,” FauntLeRoy said. “We just have to get back to fundamentals.”