Bulldogs' run breaks Broncs

The Bulldogs looked emotionally spent as they took the floor at the Dawg House on Jan. 9 for the opening tip-off against the Frenchtown Broncs.

Chalk it up to a mild case of a cross-county hangover.

The night before, Whitefish played Class AA Flathead down to the wire in a raucous battle before costly turnovers let the game slip away in the final minutes. The Bulldogs dropped the non-conference game 61-55 and left all they had on the Braves' home court.

It showed in the first quarter against Frenchtown, as the 'Dogs struggled to muster enough energy to play with any kind of defensive intensity.

But after a back-and-forth game in the first half, the 'Dogs found their second wind coming out of the locker room.

Whitefish (3-4, 1-1) clamped down on defense, out hustled the Broncs for nearly every loose ball, and dropped 34 points in the second half to run away with the non-conference game 61-41.

"In the Flathead game, I liked the energy we played with and the defensive intensity," Bulldog coach Mark Casazza said. "But we didn't take care of the ball.

"Against Frenchtown, we didn't play with that defensive intensity at first. Then the kids came out of the half and responded."

Senior guard Willie Roche, who scored a season-high 20 points in the game, credited the win to good team play and Frenchtown being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"We're really trying to play as more of a team," Roche said. "Synergy is one of our themes for the season. That really came though in the second half.

"And we were so furious that we lost (to Flathead) last night, we had to take it out on someone."

The Broncs were unlucky enough to be that someone.

Roche unloaded four three-pointers, Gage Vasquez added 13 points and Conner Sillier another 11 points to lead the 'Dogs to the 20-point victory.

"All of our guys can score on any given night," Casazza said. "It could be Vasquez, Silliker or Roche. I like that about us. Teams can't defend one guy."

Silliker leads the team in scoring with an average of nearly 12 points per game, just ahead of Roche's 10.5-point average.

The Frenchtown game remained tight through the mid point of the third quarter. Trailing by four going into the half, the Broncs nailed a deep three-pointer with a little more than three minutes remaining to close the gap to 35-34.

That's as tight as it would get, though, as the Bulldogs went on a 26-to-2 run sparked by a Roche three-pointer and a smooth jumper from Vasquez off an in-bounds pass.

A solid zone defense held Frenchtown to only seven points in the final 10 minutes.

"When they play good defense, it carries over to the offensive end," Casazza said. "That's what happened against Frenchtown — we got after it in the second half."

Whitefish sealed the deal in the fourth on a breakaway play where Roche made a long outlet pass to Silliker, who dumped it off to Vasquez for an easy lay-in. The play put Whitefish up 57-36.

Seven Bulldogs made their mark on the scorecard in the fourth quarter, led by four points from Cole Havens, who was 4-for-4 from the stripe, and four points from Vasquez.

In the loss to Flathead, Whitefish kept it close through the first half but found themselves down by 13 in the third before Vasquez and Roche knocked down seven points to close the gap to 43-36.

Down by 10 midway through the fourth, Mac Roche drained a three-ball and Vasquez make two clutch free throws to cut Flathead's lead to five.

Whitefish stayed within striking distance for the remaining minutes, but a handful of turnovers proved to be costly as the Braves ran out the clock with a six-point win.

Whitefish travels to Bigfork on Friday and Columbia Falls on Saturday.