Wildkats down LHS in battle for 1st place
Chris Peterson/Hungry Horse News Evi Cernick of the Lady Loggers shoots over Kayla DeWit of Columbia Falls during last Thursday's meeting.
The Western News
In a meeting with first-place implications in the Northwestern A, the Libby High School girls basketball team played with patience and turned the ball over a season-low nine times in a Thursday night trip to Columbia Falls.
The Lady Loggers’ shots just weren’t falling.
Columbia Falls moved closer to clinching the conference’s regular-season title with a 52-45 victory. The Wildkats pulled away during the third quarter in front of their home fans to establish a cushion that Libby could not entirely erase.
“They shot really well … they weren’t pressing us or anything, they just shot the ball really well,” LHS head coach Jim May said.
While the Kats found a rhythm on offense, the Lady Loggers could only shake their heads. May said the girls even took extra shots during warmups at halftime in an effort to find a groove.
“We only shot 30 percent for the game,” May said. “We just couldn’t finish.”
Columbia Falls held leads of 23-16 at the break and 39-26 heading into the fourth quarter. The Loggers finished strong with 19 points over the final 8 minutes.
Jackie Mee and Brittany Martin continued their scoring ways with 17 and 16 points, respectively. Each player hit a pair of 3-pointers. Mee, Martin and Jaime Gilden shared top team honors on rebounds with seven apiece. Gilden also had six assists and four steals.
Mee and Martin have been the top two scorers this season. Through 14 games, Mee averages 17.7 points with Martin coming in at 12.2.
The top two teams in the Northwestern A will receive byes in the divisional tournament on Feb. 26-28 at Glacier High School in Kalispell. Columbia Falls stumbled on Saturday against Polson but still leads with a 6-1 record.
Libby and Bigfork headed into a key Tuesday game against one another each with two losses in the conference. The contest was played after presstime.
Wildkats 52, Loggers 45
Thursday at Columbia Falls
Libby (45)
Cernick 2, Luscher 5, Martin 16, Gilden 5, Mee 17.
Columbia Falls (52)
Reeve 6, Gilley 2, DeWitt 18, Ladenburg 11, Grilley 9, DeWit 6.