Girls should be in the postseason scrum again this year

The Columbia Falls girls basketball team should be right in the mix this postseason again this year. While the team lost key seniors Winter Kemppainen and Ciera Finberg, it returns a host of both young and veteran talent.

The Cats have three solid senior point guards in Ellie Johnson, Miranda Livingston and Katie Price and plenty of height as well in Kiara Burlage, senior Allyson Gimbel,  Cydney Finberg and Sydney Hovde. Hovde’s just a sophomore, Finberg and Burlage are juniors. Last year Peyton Kehr, now a junior, was one of the team’s best shooters coming off the bench and will be a force again this year. The team should also see good things from senior Sydney Grilley and they have rising talent in sophomore Hannah Gedlaman.

“We have 10 lettermen back,” said coach Cary Finberg. “Seven that played a ton last season.”

Last season the girls were ranked No. 1 in the state most of the year and were 22-2 overall, as they took third at the state Class A tournament.

But the girls know there’s a lot of work ahead, Finberg noted.

“We still have to improve, we still have to get better,” he said.

This year the divisional tournament should be far more competitive, as the Western A conference melds both the Northwest A and Southwest A into one tourney. The top four will earn a state tourney berth. The move will mean more travel. The conference tourney is in Butte, the state tourney is in Belgrade. Butte Central, the team that dashed the Kats hopes for a state title last year should be good this year as well. They lost virtually no one to graduation. Laurel and Havre should be strong, too. Closer to home, Frenchtown is always competitive.

Finberg likes the new tournament setup. The competition helped the volleyball team prepare for the state tourney and it should do the same for basketball as well.

The last couple of seasons have boiled down to one bad quarter, dashing the team’s hopes at a state title. 

Finberg said the girls will need to avoid that this season. He has confidence in the squad.

“These girls have taken the program to a place it has been since the mid to late ‘80s,” he noted.

The Kats will also face AA opponents this year in Glacier and Missoula Sentinel.

The team opens the season with a home game against Corvallis Saturday. Game time is 4 p.m.