Columbia Falls boys lose to Bulldogs in basketball, first time in 7 years

The Columbia Falls boys basketball team’s woes at home continued last week as they fell to conference rival Whitefish Thursday night, 56-44, and then to Missoula Sentinel Saturday, 63-48.

The Wildcats are now 1-10 on the season. The last time they lost to the Bulldogs at home was in 2009, a year where the Bulldogs beat them twice in the regular season.

 That year, Columbia Falls went on to beat Whitefish in the divisional tourney, to eventually earn a state tournament berth, despite being the No. 4 seed. They finished second at the state tournament.

This team has work to do to get to the same place as that 2009 team.

Against the Bulldogs, Columbia Falls shot out to a 15-6 lead in the first quarter, but Whitefish answered with a 25-8 second quarter to take a 31-23 lead at the break. The Cats would trim the lead to five late in the fourth, but that’s as close as they would get. The boys simply aren’t getting the offensive rebounds they need to in order to win and they also haven’t played four quarters of solid defense. 

Coach John Anderson said they didn’t practice on Friday, they just watched film of the Whitefish game. They played better against Sentinel, but had another rough second quarter, when they could only muster two points.

Still, Anderson saw progress.

“They realized they can’t take a play off,” he said.

Dakota Bridwell led the squad with 11 points against Whitefish and Tyler Murphy had 13 against Sentinel.

They’ll try to salvage their season this week with a road game against conference foe Frenchtown Thursday and a home game against Stevensville Saturday. The Stevi game has a 5:30 p.m. start.

Anderson said he still has hope the Cats can turn the season around.

Sentinel 24 12 14 13 — 63

Columbia Falls 16 2 12 18 — 48

Whitefish 6 25 10 15 — 56

Columbia Falls 15 8 11 10 — 44