Sophomores and seniors lead boys basketball team

The Columbia Falls boys basketball team will be young again this year, but has plenty of talent. The team last season went 0-2 at the final Western A tournament in Butte, with an overall record of 7-11 as they played a lot of freshmen.

Now those freshmen are sophomores.

“It’s a highly odd combo, the fact we have a young squad with nine freshmen, 11 sophomores, two juniors and three seniors,” head coach Chris Finberg said. “But it’s exciting, I have never had four returning sophomores.”

“(Seniors) Cade [Morgan] can knock down a shot and he is smart. And Mason [Peters] is a hustler, getting us that extra possession and takes charge and energy on the court,” Finberg said.

Those returning seniors should be a vital part of the team. But they also have rising stars in sophomores Alihn Anderson, Jace Hill and Cody Schweikert.

The freshmen squad should also have potential, with several freshmen playing up on the junior and varsity teams. Coach Finberg has high hopes for them to get better as the year progresses.

“We’ll keep an eye on their improvement from start to finish,” Finberg said.

Last year it was Dillon and Ronan that knocked them out of the divisional tournament.

Finberg believes the team this year to beat will be Polson.

“On paper they are the favorite, and it was the same way in football. But that’s not going to stop us from playing hard and trying our best,” he said.

The boys open the season this week at the Northwest-Southwest Tip-Off tourney in Frenchtown, where they square off against Hamilton Friday and Corvallis Saturday. Both games are scheduled for 1:30 p.m.