Columbia Falls beats Lady Pirates for Northwestern A title

POLSON – The Columbia Falls Wildkats finished the regular season undefeated in conference play after they beat Polson on Friday 73-64. Kayla DeWit led the way for C-Falls with 29 points.

The Wildkats scored at least 18 points in every quarter but Polson wasn't far behind. Breanne Kelley led the team with 23 points and Riley Kenney added 21. Columbia Falls had a 37-29 halftime lead and extended it to 55-45 after the third. The Pirates outscored them 19-18 in the fourth quarter.

C-Falls will have the No. 1 seed in the divisional tournament next weekend, Polson with have the No. 2 seed.

C-Falls - 18 - 19 - 18 - 18 - 73
Polson - 15 - 14 - 16 - 19 - 64

Pirates scoring - Breanne Kelley 23, Riley Kenney 21, Mariah Hamel 10, Jonna Grant 4, Nina Orozco-Charlo 3, Heidi Rausch 3

Mission girls advance to District 7-B Championship game

Mission 41, Plains 32
The Lady Bulldogs will be headed to divisionals and after beating Plains, 41-32, they'll be taking on Bigfork in the 7-B district championship game at 8 p.m. in Libby.

Kyla Mitchell led Mission as she scored 13 of her 15 points in the first half while the Lady Bulldogs built a 28-19 halftime lead. Both teams scored 13 points in the second half.

Plains - 5 - 14 - 6 - 7 - 32
Mission - 11 - 17 - 4 - 9 - 41

Lady Bulldogs scoring - Kyla Mitchell 15, Stephanie Lewandowski 8, Loren Erickson 5, Ashley Courville 4, Bryanna Steele 4, LaGlenn Mitchell 3, MacKenzie Trudeau 2

Arlee girls upset Noxon, headed to district championship against Charlo

Arlee 62, Noxon 36
Arlee had defeated Noxon in the final game of the regular season and they carried that momentum over to the district tournament as they knocked off the No. 3 seeded Lady Red Devils.

After Arlee had a 22-16 lead at halftime, the Scarlets outscored Noxon 21-4 in the third quarter to put the game on ice.

Kristyn Adams was spectacular for Arlee, scoring 18 points, while Mahalia Hendren had 18 and Whitney Malatare added 10. In other words, the Scarlets attacked from every angle.

They'll now face the Charlo Lady Vikings in the 14-C District tournament championship on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Noxon - 10 - 6 - 4 - 16 - 36
Arlee - 12 - 10 - 21 - 19 - 62

Scarlets scoring - Kristyn Adams 24, Mahalia Hendren 18, Whitney Malatare 10, Tayla Desjarlais 7, Skyla Perry 2, Tiffany O'Neill 1.

Arlee and Charlo advance to District 14-C boys' championship game

Arlee 53, Two Eagle 51
Did anyone expect this game not to be close. Two Eagle came back from a 39-26 deficit after three quarters but it wasn't quite enough to get over the hump against the Warriors. That matches up Arlee against the Charlo Vikings for the championship of District 14-C, tomorrow at 8 p.m.

The Eagles took the early lead, 17-12 after the first quarter but scored just nine points in the next two periods. Then they mounted a 25-14 rally in the fourth to come within a hair of upending the Warriors.

Arlee continues to do good things in the post as they collected 26 points in the paint and out-rebounded the Eagles, 28-11. Senior Jesse Pfau was the man of the night with a double-double. He scored 18 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

Two Eagle was much more effective from the three-point line, hitting five of them and shooting over 38 percent from behind the line. Junior Artie Mendoza led the team with 14 points.

TER - 17 - 4 - 5 - 25 – 51
Arlee - 12 - 14 - 13 - 14 – 53

Eagles scoring - Artie Mendoza 14, Skyler Rossbach 10, Clayton Malatare 9, Marcus Brown 7, Trevor Butterfly 6, TJ Cutfinger 5

Warriors scoring - Jesse Pfau 18, Thomas McClure 12, Kasey Bridgewater 7, Harvey Sansavere 6, Trae Burland 6, Eneas Inmee 2, Beau Couture 2

Charlo 49, Noxon 42
Noxon showed why it was one of the most feared (along with Two Eagle) teams in this tournament. They mounted a fourth-quarter comeback but came up short against the Charlo Vikings, 49-42. Senior Chico Stipe led the Vikings with 11 points.

Charlo had a 22-17 lead at halftime before pulling away with a 16-10 run in the third. Then the Red Devils came alive themselves in the fourth but the Vikings held them off.

Senior post Chance Rosenbaum scored eight points and pulled down 11 rebounds to give Charlo a strong post presence. Dillon Delaney also had 10 points.

Charlo will now face Arlee for the district championship at 8 p.m.

Noxon - 8 - 9 - 10 - 15 - 42
Charlo - 11 - 11 - 16 - 11 – 49

Vikings scoring - Chico Stipe 11, Dillon Delaney 10, Garrett Herron 8, Chance Rosenbaum 8, Kolten Andrews 4, Stephen Delaney 6, Webb O’Neill 2, Tra Ludeman 0, Tyler Delaney 0

Wildcats get past Pirates for conference title

COLUMBIA FALLS - The scene was set. Boy was it set. The crowd was loud with large contingents for both sides. The winning team would get the conference crown and the No. 1 seed in next weekend's divisional tournament. Polson had the lead for most of the game but a four-point fourth quarter allowed Columbia Falls to take the 34-29 victory and the Northwestern A title on Friday night.

It was a defensive battle, with neither team shooting very well. The Pirates jumped out to a 10-6 first quarter lead and then the Wildcats went cold from the field in the second. Columbia Falls hit just one field goal in the second quarter, as Polson built a 21-13 halftime lead.

The Wildcats did make a move in the third and closed within 27-23, and the Pirates scored just four points in the fourth as Columbia Falls took the lead with 3:05 to go in the game.

Louis Mohr led the Pirates with ten points. Kyle Bagnell had 7

Polson - 10 - 11 - 6 - 2 - 29
C-Falls - 6 - 7 - 10 - 11 - 34

Pirates scoring - Louis Mohr 10, Kyle Bagnel 7, Tyler Krell 5, Cody Fischer 4, Zack Camel 3

Charlo girls advance to District 14-C Championship game

RONAN - If Charlo's girls basketball game were a MLB pitcher, they'd probably be up for the Cy Young award. They once again showed how tremendous they are with their defense, stifling Hot Springs and winning 33-5 to advance to the District 14-C Championship game, which will be played Saturday (Feb. 19) at 6 p.m.

Charlo blanked Hot Springs in the first quarter while taking a 5-0 lead. Then in the second, after a bucket by the Savage Heat, the Lady Vikings finished out the half with a 7-0 run for the 12-2 halftime lead.

Hot Springs would go scoreless again in the third quarter while Charlo extended their lead to 21-2. In the fourth, Hot Springs would score three points.

Leading the Vikings was senior Kinley Pope with 13 points and freshman Jordan Ludeman with eight.

Charlo - 5 - 7 - 9 - 12 - 33
Hot Springs - 0 - 2 - 0 - 3 - 5

Lady Vikings scoring - Kinley Pope 13, Jordan Ludeman 8, Rachel Hoyt 6, Kelsie Blevins 2, Aspen Runkel 2, Dawn Blevins 2

No. 5 Bigfork falls in District 7-B tournament to Troy

Oh boy, things just got crazy in the 7-B district tournament in Libby... (From the Bigfork Eagle)

The Bigfork boys basketball team struggled to catch up with Troy after the first quarter and ended up falling to the Trojans 62-57 this afternoon, moving the Vikings into loser-out play in the District 7B Tournament in Libby.

The No. 1 seeded Vikings trailed the No. 5 Trojans 37-30 at the half and were unable to regain a lead. The team was without Carter Sorensen, one of Bigfork's leading senior scorers, who incurred a knee injury in practice Thursday. It's questionable whether he'll be back off of the bench for the Vikings' second game in the tournament.

The Bigfork boys will need to claim a win over No. 3 Eureka (Lincoln County) in their next game, at 9 a.m. Saturday in Troy, to secure a spot in the Western B Divisional Tournament at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo next weekend.

If the Vikings win that match, they'll play at 2:15 p.m. Saturday against the winner of Mission and the loser of tonight's 6 p.m. game between Thompson Falls and Plains.

The winner of tonight's game will play against Troy in the championship game at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

The Vikings, who were 10-0 in the district in the regular season, entered the double-elimination tournament with a first round bye. The teams that place in the top four at the tournament advance to divisionals.

Noxon will face Charlo on Friday

Noxon 54, Hot Springs 42, Overtime
It was a close game, but what had been the bright spot of Noxon all season long came through for the Red Devils.

Sharpshooting guard Jordan Eichert hit several points in the overtime period to lead Noxon over Hot Springs, 54-42. He would finish the game with 17 points.

They will play Charlo tomorrow (Feb. 18) at 4 p.m.

Hot Springs - 7 - 10 - 10 - 11 - 4 - 42
Noxon - 9 - 8 - 9 - 12 - 16 - 54

Savage Heat scoring - Cody Hoff 18, Dave Cross 10, Trevor Bras 8, Zach Malinak 3, Conner Stobie 3

Red Devils scoring - Jordan Eichert 17, Travis Tammaro 9, Neal Jopling 8, Austin Tucker 8, Tyrell Wilkinson 6, Jesse Linderman 3, Banks Stocking 2, Johny Carter 1

Mission falls in first game of District 7-B Tournament

Troy 45, Mission 32
LIBBY - With four teams advancing to the divisional tournament, the Mission Bulldogs will need to take the long way around. In their opening game of the District 7-B tournament, they fell to a pumped up Troy team 45-32.

The Bulldogs played Troy close in the first half, trailing just 19-15 at halftime. However, a slow third quarter put them in a hole they couldn't get out of.

Mission was led by freshman Stuart Grant with 10 points.

The Bulldogs will now await an opponent for a Saturday elimination game.

Mission - 5 - 10 - 6 - 11 - 32
Troy - 10 - 9 - 13 - 13 - 45

Bulldogs scoring - Stuart Grant 10, Austin Durglo 9, Dylan Evans 8, Nikko Alexander 3, Josh Durglo 2

Here are some photos by The Western New's Paul Sievers.

Two Eagle advances in district tournament

Two Eagle 61, St. Regis 38
RONAN - St. Regis came out with some energy and put Two Eagle on their heels in the first quarter, but the Eagles came roaring back in the second and third quarters for a big 61-38 win to advance to the semi-finals of the District 14-C tournament.

The Tigers jumped out to a 16-9 lead in the first quarter despite six points from Two Eagle's Clayton Malatare. St. Regis had the advantage on the boards and saw a combined 13 points from Thomas Spencer and Jarrod Tippens Jr. Then the Eagles' defense kicked in.

After a quick bucket at the beginning of the second quarter, Two Eagle didn't allow another point until the closing seconds before halftime. The Eagles went on a 20-0 run and had the 31-20 lead at halftime.

In the third quarter, Two Eagle had another run, this time a 11-0 jaunt, to further extend the lead. It was 46-26 going into the fourth quarter.

The Eagles had three players score in double digits, with junior Artie Mendoza leading the way with 16 points, Malatare adding 11 and junior Marcus Brown adding 10.

The win puts the Eagles in a semi-finals matchup with No. 2 seed Arlee on Friday (Feb. 18) at 8 p.m.

Here are some photos I took from the game...

A look at the Polson-Columbia Falls games on Friday

Local Polson Pirate basketball guru John Heglie has put together a preview for the Polson Columbia Falls basketball games this weekend. Remember the girls will play the Wildkats at Linderman gymnasium at 7:30 on Friday while the boys will play at the same time up in Columbia Falls. The conference title will be on the line in both matchups.

Click on the read more to get the full preview, it's coutesy of ihigh.com.

More photos from state wrestling

Just wanted to make sure I got more photos up from the state tournaments. There were so many photos to go through I only got to scratch the surface when I posted earlier this week. Here are some more photos.

(Click on the Read More to see the full post of photos)

The Big Sky just got a whole lot crazier

It's official, Nate Montana has transferred from Notre Dame to the University of Montana. It seems that Eastern Washington University and the rest of Big Sky have their own Cuban Missile Crisis in football. The NFL legend's son is surely to bring his dad's skill and coolness to Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

Hold on, this might be all a farce, read what ESPN had to say...

It's questionable whether the quarterback would have ever made the roster had his name been Nate Wyoming. But as the son of Joe Montana, he was going to be given a shot. And the Irish were glad to have him last season after he transferred back in from junior college, because Montana was the most experienced quarterback on the roster after Dayne Crist.

Montana played in three games in 2010, going 9-for-18 for 116 yards with an interception. When Crist got hurt against Michigan and Tommy Rees looked nervous and shaky, Montana was the one who had to finish the half.

But once Rees improved and wound up starting and finishing the final four games victoriously, Montana clearly became the odd man out. The Irish brought in highly regarded freshman Everett Golson in this recruiting class and have Andrew Hendrix and Luke Massa from last year's signing class, plus the return of Rees and Crist. Brian Kelly said that there was no way to get six quarterbacks reps in practice and that the group would be thinned. It didn't take a genius to see that Montana needed to find a new home.

Montana fans shouldn't celebrate just yet, because Nate is an unproven commodity. Nothing against the kid, and seriously it will be cool to have the QB have the same name as the state he represents (Should make for some cool photos). Here's what Mick Holien, the godfather for Montana football (and Polson resident), had to say on his blog...

It’s been quite the winter for such drop-down quarterback speculation and the school no doubt will receive quite a degree of national pub for his arrival.

A business school enrollee and a finance major at Notre Dame, Nate will be a junior in eligibility and have two years to play two seasons.

He is described in the Notre Dame Press Guide as “a raw but talented quarterback” who enjoyed his best career outing in the Blue-Gold Spring game where he connected on 18 of 30 passes for 223 yards and three touchdowns as the Gold quarterback.

Six-foot 4-inches and 215 pounds, his younger brother, Nick, is a quarterback at the University of Washington.

It’s a good thing he’s a Libra because he needs the strength and creativity of his astrological sign to grow out of the shadow of his famous father and blossom as something other than the son of a four-time Super Bowl and National Championship winning quarterback.

As my good buddy, Charley Mitchell, suggested, maybe the town of Ismay which changed its name to Joe Montana in his honor in 1993, should consider another moniker alteration.

So while Montana has the namesake, EWU had transfer Bo Levi Mitchell. Might I add that Mitchell has pantented "gunslinger" tattoos on his arms. ADVANTAGE: EWU.

This week's front page

If you haven't gotten it yet off of newsstands or in the mail, here's the front page from the Leader with state wrestling on the top. Woo!

On the road with state wrestling: Butte

Thanks to the wonderful sacrifice by Hagadone Corporation, I was allowed to go to Butte, MT for the Class A State Wrestling tournament this Saturday. What happened was I woke up at 5:30 a.m. on Friday, drove down to Hamilton, MT (Not a large town) for the Class B/C Championships and then after they concluded their first day, I drove all the way to Butte for Class A on Saturday. Here's what I learned about the wonderful city of Butte.

1. There is nothing between Missoula and Butte sans for one or two scary truck stops. Make sure you bring your survival gear when you drive between these two cities.

2. Getting on and off the freeway is actually kind of tough. Poor signage. I blame Obama.

3. Butte, MT is home to the niciest Super 8 Motel I've ever stayed at. Granted, the only other Super 8 I stayed at was in Yakima, Wash. (ugh) but I have this strange feeling that Super 8 gets a bad rep and is actually a pretty good hotel chain. Rooms were clean, people were nice, continental breakfast was awesome and cable had more channels than my home DISH. Plus it was within walking distance of Taco Bell. I actually did the math of what it would cost a month to just live in a Super 8 Motel. I don't think I can afford $2,100 a month.

4. There's the Virgin Mary up on the hill. Very Catholic and very awesome. Our Lady of the Rockies.

5. Driving through town, Butte has definitely got some character. All these old, historic buildings are super cool, espicially when they're put side by side with modern buildings. The Town Pump (Gas Station in Montana) corporate headquarters was also a treat seeing. Namely I was curious if I could go into their headquarters and ask for an energy drink and some jerky.

6. The roads are terrible, I'm sure the potholes are deeper than Berkely Pit.

7. The Butte Civic Center is the coolest sports arena I've been in. It looks like Slap Shot was shot in there. It's one of those old barns that is minimalistic, but still sooo awesome. I want to watch a hockey game in there because I feel I could spit on the hockey players. Here's a photo of the place, now just imagine four wrestling mats instead of a basketball court and you got the Civic Center. Wonderful venue, and it makes me wonder why we always have to tear down these old buildings for new sports arenas.

8. Pork Chop John's is apparently world renowned. Went there with the Valley Journal's Jeremy Weber, we were not impressed despite recommendations from everyone. Its a dry pork chop in two buns. Whoop de doo.

9. If you leave your Carhartt jacket on a chair in Starbucks, nobody will take it. Even if it has an expensive video camera in the pocket. In Spokane, a homeless man would have taken it and rolled around in some poo before one was able to get back and retrieve it.

10. Can someone tell my why every town except Ronan, St. Ignatius, Charlo and Polson, like putting a letter on a hill somewhere? Butte has an "M", Missoula has an "M", Arlee has an "A". Come on Lake County towns! I feel like our cities are not pulling their weight.