Loggers end regular season flat against C-Falls
<p>Senior guard Luke Adamson drives the lane with Tyler Murphy in tow second quarter vs. Columbia Falls 2-21-15.</p>
The Libby Loggers boys basketball team ended the regular season just as they started it, flat. The Loggers fell to visiting Columbia Falls in their last game of the regular season by a score of 76-30.
In front of a packed house at Ralph Tate Memorial Gym on Senior Night, the Columbia Falls Wildcats stormed out of the gates against the Loggers, reeling off seven unanswered points before Libby coach Josh Bean called a timeout to talk things over with his team.
The timeout did little to stem the flood, though, as the Wildcats tore off another seven points, with Libby’s only spark coming from an Isaak Jones three-pointer, leading Bean to call a second timeout with 3:15 remaining in the quarter.
Columbia Falls continued to roll as the quarter ended, pouring in another eight points, with Collin Johnson adding two for Libby to end the period 24-5.
The second quarter saw a slightly better performance from the home-team Loggers, as they scored 10 points behind the outside shooting of Jonny Cielak and aggressive play from the big men, Michael Curtiss and Erik Lauer, in the paint. Columbia Falls kept pace with their first quarter performance, scoring 23 in the period to take a 42-15 lead into the locker room at the half.
The visiting Wildcats resumed their dominance as the second half began, scoring 11 unanswered points, nine by Ty Morgan, forcing Bean to slow things down with another timeout.
Cielak popped in a three-pointer after the timeout and Luke Adamson added another three, converting a free throw after being fouled while scoring on a layup. Columbia Falls scored three more as the quarter wound to a close, taking a 40-point lead into the fourth quarter with the score at 61-21.
The Loggers kept fighting as the fourth quarter started, with Michael Curtiss scoring the first bucket of the period after pulling down an offensive rebound. After another Wildcat score, Cielak drained another three-pointer, cutting the lead to 37. Columbia Falls responded with one of their own from beyond the arc, pushing the gap back to 40.
As the game ticked away, Curtiss scored another second-chance bucket after fighting for a rebound, but the game was long out of reach. The Wildcats coasted to a 46-point win, 76-30.
The regular season is over for the Loggers, but the team travels to Whitefish for divisionals against Frenchtown at 6 p.m.Thursday. The top two teams from the divisional tournament advance to the state tournament March 12-14.