Girls basketball team is young, talented
Hope McAtee, foreground, runs defense drills with assistant coach Ciera Finberg during girls hoops practice recently.
Hungry Horse News
The Columbia Falls girls basketball team is young, but they’ve put in the gym time.
“I’m excited about how they improved in the offseason,” coach Cary Finberg said.
They have one senior — Kya West — but return a host of talent that saw varsity minutes last season.
The Wildkats are led by junior Hope McAtee, who scored 28 and 24 points respectively in the team’s two state tournament losses last year. The versatile McAtee can score with either hand and from anywhere on the court.
Including West, the Kats will look for good things from juniors Lexi Oberholtzer, Demi Rensel, and sophomore guard Taryn Borgen.
They also have depth with Emalee Alton, Kierra Kempainnen, Addy Bowler, Ellie Stutsman and Ava Duval.
“We have a lot more options offensively,” Finberg said.
Finberg said they’ll continue to work on defense as the season progresses. The Cats trademark play over the years has been a tenacious D with quick points in transition and on the break.
As far as competition, Browning always a tough out in conference play and Hamilton is strong in the south. On the nonconference end, the Class B teams will be a tough out. Bigfork is loaded and Florence is good, too.
Finberg likes this squad.
“I think we’ll surprise people,” he said.
The goal, as every season, is to get to the state tourney in Bozeman at the end of the season.
This is Finberg’s 31st year coaching, his 12th coaching the girls squad. He’s assisted by his daughters, Ciera, who coaches JV, Cydney, Zach Levitt, who coaches the froshmores and Steve Kracher.
The Cats open the season at the tip-off tourney in Frenchtown next week. They have an intersquad scrimmage 1 p.m. Saturday at home.