Lady Bulldogs finish strong
The progress was slow, but steady for
the Lady Bulldogs basketball team this season, which capped off
their year with a strong showing at the Northwestern A divisional
basketball tourney last weekend in Ronan.
“We finally put it all together and
played some of our best basketball of the year,” Whitefish coach
Sean Duff said.
Led by eight points from Olivia Nagler,
the No. 5 seeded Whitefish team opened with a thrilling 23-22 win
against Ronan. The Lady ‘Dogs put in nine points in the third
quarter to take a lead and then fended off a late push by the
Maidens to move into the championship bracket.
Against top-seeded Columbia Falls,
Whitefish put up as good of an all-around performance as they have
this season.
Brooke Silliker led with 12 points, and
Shannon and Simone Craft chipped in seven points to keep Whitefish
within earshot of a major upset.
An impressive display of defense held
the Wildkats’ top scorer, Kayla DeWit, to just 16 points, but
Columbia Falls eventually put the game away in a 37-26 victory.
“We did a great job on Kayla and took
her out of her game a little bit,” Duff said.
On Saturday, Whitefish squared off with
Polson in the consolation game. The Lady Pirates opened a big lead
with 28 total points in the first half, too much for Whitefish to
overcome, as Polson rolled ahead 56-32.
Nine Bulldogs made their mark on the
score sheet, led by six points each from Olivia Curtiss and Jessica
Poe. Each of the Craft girls chipped in five points, a duo that
could lead the team in the years to come along side a number of
up-and-coming underclassmen.
“We’ll look for big things out of these
young girls next year,” Duff said.
Whitefish graduates four seniors
including Olivia Nagler, Jenna Rose Hanson, Heather Bailey and
Olivia Curtiss.
“We’ll miss our seniors,” Duff said.
“They did some good things for the program.”