Pirates get swamped in the "Dawg Pound"

By DAVID ERICKSON / Whitefish Pilot

The "Dawg Pound" was an unfriendly place for the visiting Polson Pirates on Saturday night, as the Bulldogs avenged their loss earlier in the season in Polson.

Whitefish claimed their second conference victory in a row with a 61-51 victory over Polson at Whitefish High School.

The game was a lot closer than the score indicates, however, as the Pirates hung in within a basket or two for the first three quarters of the game, taking the leads several times.

The Bulldogs went on a 23-point tear in the fourth quarter to finish the game, something they had not been able to do against conference opponents earlier this year.

Colt Idol scored a game-high 24 points, including nine in the last quarter. Matt Whitehead sank a couple clutch three-pointers in the last quarter, while Shawn Watterud had one. Idol had two treys in the game.

Aaron Tkachyk came back from an ankle injury, but he was limited to only one free-throw shot.

The Pirates just seemed to run out of steam trying to contain the Bulldogs' sharp passing attack in the second half, and the Whitefish shooters were able to not only drive inside but get offensive rebounds more often than not.

"We started off pretty good, and we did an awesome job with defensive rebounding, which is something we emphasized at halftime," head coach Eric Stang said. "When the fourth quarter rolled around, we were shooting a pretty high percentage. It seemed like a lot of shots were going in, and we got some calls toward the end."

Stang said he has changed his team's free-throw drills in practice lately, leading to an increased percentage of shots over the past few weeks.

The win moved Whitefish to 2-3 in Northwestern A and 5-6 overall. The Bulldogs travel to Ronan for another conference showdown tonight.

Polson 10 14 15 12 - 51

Whitefish 14 10 14 23 - 61

Whitefish - (5-6, 2-3) Matt Whitehead 1-2 13, Aaron Tkachyk 0 1-2 1, Shawn Watterud 3 2-2 10, Josh Backer 1 2-3 4, Brian Flickinger 1 0-0 2, Colt Idol 11 0-0 24, Jake Smith 2 1-2, David FauntLeRoy 1 0-0 2. Totals 24 7-11 61.

Team fouls; Whitefish 14. Fouled out: FauntLeRoy.