Boys' streak comes to an end

From 10-0 to ugh and two. The Columbia Falls boys basketball team's winning streak ended last week in dramatic fashion as they lost to Glacier in overtime Friday, 65-63, and then to Missoula Loyola Saturday night 67-52.

The Glacier game will go down as a classic, complete with dramatic shots, dramatic mistakes and dramatic calls that folks might question for years to come.

The game was close throughout and Columbia Falls took a slim halftime lead 34-29. But the Wolfpack, playing at home in a gym packed to the rafters, outscored the Cats 12-7 in the third to tie the game at 41 apiece.

The game see-sawed back and forth.

The Cats were up 54-51 with about 30 seconds left, but Glacier's Bryan Chery hit a 3-pointer to tie it. With about 5 seconds left, the Cats were playing for the last shot, but Mitchell Wassam slipped on the inbounds and Glacier got the turnover. Glacier's Connor Fuller raced down the court and threw up a desperation shot. The buzzer sounded and the refs ruled Fuller got the shot up and was fouled before time ended. Fuller, however, missed the front end of a one-on-one.

In overtime the Cats had a 5-point lead 61-56 with 46.2 seconds left, but Glacier battled back once again and cut the lead to 2 with 17 seconds left. With 5.5 seconds left Glacier took the lead 65-63. The Cats managed to get up three shots in the last 5 seconds and Nick Emerson dropped a shot as time expired, but the refs waved off the basket. The game was over.

"I thought we played well …You have a lead and you need to hold it. But you've got to give Glacier credit," coach Cary Finberg said.

Michael Williams led the team with 16, Mitchell Wassam had 11 and Kyle Howell had 12.

Drama aside, the Cats suffered from one fundamental problem — turnovers. They had 21.

"That's the stat that's been biting us all year," Finberg noted.

There were some calls that didn't go the Cats way, either. In regulation, Austin Barth was fouled under the basket and appeared to be taking a shot. The refs saw it otherwise and didn't call it a shooting foul.

Finberg protested the call and was given a technical foul for slamming the basketball on the court.

The final shot by Emerson also appeared to drop before the buzzer sounded. They also didn't see Kaleb Johnson trying to call time-out in overtime. As a result, he threw the ball out of bounds to stop the clock, resulting in a turnover.

On Saturday, the Cats were flat after the Glacier game, and a long road trip to Missoula didn't help. They were down 27-17 in the first half and never recovered against a solid Sacred Heart team that is bigger than Columbia Falls and one of the state's top class B teams.

Loyola's Pat Jensen had 28 in the win and Loyola scored 24 points in the fourth to seal the win.

Finberg said the Cats didn't play well defensively last weekend and against Loyola, they were particularly lax.

Loyola was four for eight from beyond the arc and shot 53 percent from the field. They also out-rebounded the Cats 36-26 and shot 32 free throws to the Cats five.

Finberg named Johnson player of the week. He had 21 points, 19 rebounds, six blocks, four steals and six assists over the two games and shot eight for 13 from the field.

JV player of the week was Devyn Rocker with 18 points over the two games. He also made some key passes. The JV record is now 9-1. The frosh player of the week was Dyllon Parker, who had 24 points and went 12 for 13 from the free-throw line in a loss to Loyola. The frosh are now 7-5.

The Cats will look to regroup Friday at home against Thompson Falls. Gametime is 7:30 p.m.