Cats stay perfect, drop Braves, Spartans
The Wildcats stuffed coal firmly in the stockings of two AA basketball squads last week in a Christmas break send-off of Flathead and Sentinel.
The boys dropped Flathead Thursday 51-43 and then knocked off Missoula Sentinel Saturday 49-41 at home.
Sentinel was the top-ranked AA squad in Western Montana going into the game.
Against Flathead it was the Cats' defense that saved the day. Kyle Howell had six steals and Austin Barth had seven rebounds and 10 points to lead the Cats.
"I thought we played pretty well defensively from the start," coach Cary Finberg said. "(Flathead) played hard but our kids responded when we needed to in the fourth."
The game started with an odd technical foul against the Braves. They sported brand new uniforms with the manufacturer's logo on the shoulder. A commercial logo on a uniform is against Montana High School Association rules.
Against Sentinel senior Mitchell Wassam had a huge game, particularly in the fourth quarter when he grabbed six of his eight rebounds and scored 11 of his 19 points. Wassam was named varsity player of the week.
It was the team's most complete game of the year, with a cool boost from the bench when Jake Calderwood came in the first half and dropped a three and then took a charge on the defensive end.
The crowd went wild.
The boys had a 21-15 lead at the half, but with Barth in foul trouble in the third quarter, Sentinel outscored the Cats 14-4 to take the lead. The Cats battled back and tied it up at 33 apiece with 4.5 minutes left in the fourth.
Barth would foul out, but Wassam stepped it up, grabbing several clutch rebounds as well as dropping key free throws to put Missoula away.
"Defensively we're pretty dang good," Finberg said. He also noted the Cats had very few turnovers on the weekend — just five against Sentinel and 14 against Flathead.
"Taking care of the basketball was huge."
The JV player of the week was Calderwood, who had 15 points and 12 rebounds against Flathead and seven points and seven boards against Sentinel. Frosh player of the week was Luke Kazlauskas, who had 16 points in a 49-33 win over Flathead and 17 in a 47-45 win against Sentinel.
The boys are now 5-0 and travel to Missoula Big Sky Jan. 2.