Lady Pirates top Lady Bulldogs

POLSON — The Polson Lady Pirates bounced back on their feet with a solid win over the Whitefish Bulldogs last Thursday, 42-40, led by Kara Huyser's and Kari Mowbray's offensive and rebounding efforts.

Both girls put up double-doubles, with Mowbray getting 15 points and Huyser getting 11. Both players grabbed 10 rebounds each.

"They were both more determined in the game against Whitefish. I think they both wanted to bounce back after the game against Ronan earlier last week," said head coach Bruce Thomas.

With Emily Fors' two points, Huyser and Mowbray helped the Lady Pirates jump out to a 14-4 lead in the first quarter, and the team extended the lead to 23-14 at the half.

"Whitefish's game plan was to double up on Kari, but that just ended up leaving Kara open. A lot of their points were off rebounds - they were very good at converting rebounds to points," Thomas said.

Jen Orchard opened the second half with a 3-pointer, but Whitefish started to press later in the quarter and seemed to rattle the Lady Pirates' nerves, eventually pulling to within four and then tying it with 30 seconds left in the third.

"We got impatient and lost on defense, which really affected our offense. We started playing not to lose instead of to win," Thomas said. "We had a mental breakdown."

Whitefish trailed 40-38 with three minutes left, and Thomas got the team refocused with timeouts. The Lady Pirates had a two-point lead with a minute left, and Whitefish couldn't convert two opportunities to tie.

Polson ran the clock down to 15 seconds before the Bulldogs fouled. After Polson missed the foul shot, Whitefish had a chance to tie with two or win with three with the last shot. The shot missed, and the Lady Pirates were victorious.

Fors finished the game with two, Orchard had seven, Jenni Nesladek had five, and Jaelin Vendeberg had two to round out the night.

The Lady Pirates will host Thompson Falls Thursday night in non-conference action before going to Bigfork Friday night. Polson beat Bigfork in early January, but Thomas said it's a whole different ball game up there.

"We're playing better than we were earlier in the season, but Bigfork is tough to beat at home. The gym is smaller, the crowd is closer and louder and we historically haven't shot well there," Thomas said.

Bigfork will be the first of four conference games to finish the season, and the Lady Vals are somewhat of an enigma. They only have two conference wins, but they were over Columbia Falls and Ronan - the two toughest teams in the league.

"Bigfork plays a tough zone, and if we can't get inside, we'll have to shoot from the outside, which we haven't done very well in Bigfork," Thomas said.

Polson 42, Whitefish 40

Whitefish 4 10 17 9 - 40

Polson 14 9 8 11 - 42

WHITEFISH: Ashley Ferda 20, Kyla Salisbury 3, Tracy Schwada 1, Tessa Kalfell 8, Erin Greiner 8.

POLSON: Jen Orchard 7, Jenny Nesladek 5, Jaelin Vandeberg 2, Kari Mowbray 15, Kara Huyser 11, Emily Fors 2.