Loggers prevail in a 'dog fight' in Eureka; girls fall short
Caden Williams and Keith Johnson each scored 15 points to help the Libby Loggers defeat the Eureka Lions 51-39 in nonconference basketball at Lincoln County High School on Jan. 14.
The win brings the Libby High School boys basketball record to 6-1.
The Loggers’ Ryan Goodman added 10 points, including several key free throws late in the game when Eureka was making a run.
Eureka’s AJ Pacella scored 19, a tally that included two three-point baskets.
“It was a dogfight,” said Loggers head coach Josh Bean. “We had to work for it. Eureka is a very physical team, a strong team — full of great athletes.”
Bean said Eureka was untroubled by the Loggers’ half-court trap defense.
“Eureka did a really nice job of breaking it,” he said. “We didn’t really get tons of steals out of it.”
Libby led 29-19 at the half, but turnovers and bad shots in the third quarter helped Eureka close the gap, Bean said.
“It was a pretty close game, throughout,” he said.
As the clock wound down, Eureka’s attempt to pressure Libby allowed a few easy baskets for the Loggers and yielded trips to the foul line.
“One thing we’ve done is we’ve been able to make our free throws count late, when it’s close,” Bean said.
The Libby High School girls basketball team lost 41–28 to the Eureka Lady Lions. The loss brings the Lady Loggers’ record to 1-6.
Julie Martineau led Loggers scoring with nine points.
Head coach Jackie DeShazer said the girls moved the ball well against a 1-3-1 Eureka zone defense. She said the team has struggled in games past with turnovers when faced with a zone.
DeShazer said the girls also did a good job running full court presses, both zone and man-to-man, against Eureka.
“We forced a lot of turnovers,” she said.
The final score did not reflect how neck-and-neck the game got during the fourth quarter, DeShazer said. The Loggers twice closed within a few baskets, only to be thwarted by two “dagger-in-the-heart” three-point shots by Eureka, she said.
DeShazer said Olivia Gilliam-Smith hustled hard throughout the game, blocking shots and forcing steals. Gilliam-Smith had seven points in the first half, she said.
Eureka’s top scorers were Katie Schmidt, with 15, and Maggie Graves, with 11.
The Loggers girls and boys teams are scheduled to play Polson High School in Libby on Saturday.