Cats get back on a roll, face Braves in rematch

One was convincing. One was a squeaker. Both were W's. That's how the week went for the Columbia Falls boys basketball team.

Last Thursday, they beat Polson 59-45 at home, and then they beat Corvallis on the road, 80-78 in overtime. The Cats are now 8-1 overall, 2-1 in conference play.

Against Polson, top scorers were Drew Perry with 19, Anthony Minson with 16, J.D. Fields eight, Kevin Boyer had six, Steffan Anderson had one, Nick Beckwith, three, Justin Heinrichs had two, and Guy Smith had four.

"We had a huge second quarter and that was the difference in that game," said coach Cary Finberg. The Pirates weren't pushovers. At one point in the fourth quarter they cut the margin to nine and were looking to make a run when the Cats stifled their effort.

Corvallis was just a plain old shootout.

"We had a lot of individual guys step up," Finberg said.

Against Corvallis, Minson had 17, Perry had 18, Jace Ladenburg had 11, Boyer eight, Fields had seven, Smith six, Macijunas eight, and Heinrichs had five. Macijunas also had six rebounds. Minson had five blocks.

Fields also had 10 assists.

"He had his best floor game of the year," Finberg said. "He did a great job getting everyone involved."

Finberg was also pleased with Minson's play over the weekend. The 6-5 forward is maturing and coming into his own. In total for the weekend, he had 33 points, 26 boards and five blocks.

"That's a huge step up in the level of play he's been showing us," Finberg said. "That's a great, great weekend."

The Cats had a chance to beat Corvallis in regulation. The Blue Devils tied it up in regulation on two free throws and the Cats had the last shot. A jumper by Fields didn't drop and neither did put-ins by Boyer and Perry.

In overtime, Corvallis jumped out to a five point lead, but Fields hit a three, then Boyer stole the ball and put in the shot to tie it. Ladenburg took a charge and dropped in both free throws to extend the lead to two and the Cats wound up outscoring the Blue Devils 9-7 in the overtime stanza.

The Cats now face two AA opponents. They play Flathead away tonight at 8 p.m. and Hellgate Friday at home at 7:30 p.m. Flathead will be looking to avenge an early season loss to the Cats and Hellgate is one of the best teams in AA ball right now.

Finberg said the games will be good tests for his team. Games where they can work on their strengths and find out their weaknesses. After that, they round out the season with seven conference games in a row. The Cats are now third in the conference at 2-1.

The JV squad beat Corvallis 66-52 and Polson 49-41 to extend their record to 6-2. The frosh are now 7-1 after beating Polson 56-27 and Corvallis 49-48.

Wildcats 59, Pirates 45

Polson 14 7 11 13 45

C. Falls 11 23 10 15 59

Wildcats 80, Blue Devils 78

C. Falls 16 26 15 14 9 80

Corvallis 20 20 23 8 7 78