Bagnell steps up for Pirates

POLSON - Polson senior Kyle Bagnell has thrown no-hitters. He's signed a letter of intent to play baseball at Oklahoma State University. He's an allstate wide receiver, eliciting the "Let's put six defensive backs on him and hope for the best" treatment from other teams.

He was last year's leading scorer for the Northwestern Conference in basketball.

In other words, this guy is just a few cliff jumping, bird feeding and rock climbing motifs from appearing in his own "most interesting man in the world" commercial.

And with senior phenom Louis Mohr in foul trouble last Thursday night, Bagnell took over with 22 points and 14 rebounds as Polson (4-1) upended AA Big Sky 76-61.

"When Louis is off, Kyle is always there," head coach Brad Pluff said. "Some nights when they're both on, we're going to be a tough team to beat."

The game against the Eagles was a tight contest, with the Pirates clinging to a 49-45 lead after three quarters, but a 27-point fourth quarter sealed the win for Polson.

"It seemed like it was a lotcloser than what the score indicated," Pluff said. "Anytime you can put 70 points on the board, you're happy."

Mohr didn't have a shabby night by anyone's standards either, scoring 19 and pulling down 14 rebounds.

He's also leading the Northwestern A League in assists (6.5 per game) and steals (six per game). Also helping the Pirates' efforts was senior Tyler Krell with nine points along with juniors Cody Fischer and Vince DiGiallonardo, who had eight apiece.

"[Kyle and Louis] do so much more than scoring," Pluff said.

Polson also defeated Big Sky last year, 60-56.

"They've got 400 more bodies to pick from," Pluff said. "Give me 400 bodies and I could find a couple of basketball players."

The Pirates then kicked off their conference schedule with a 76-54 victory over Whitefish at home on Saturday.

"You don't want to lose conference games anyhow," Pluff said. "You definitely don't want to lose conference home games."

Expecting a tough game against a Whitefish team that had played well at the Tipoff Tournament two weeks ago, the Pirates came out and scored 16 points in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs? They got caught in a shooting slump and it snowballed.

Polson took the 33-13 lead at halftime.

"You get up on a team and they try to rush things and try to force things," Pluff said.

While things would heat up for Whitefish in the second half in terms of points scored, they couldn't stop the Pirates' attack. Polson won 76-54.

Mohr led the Pirates with 22 points, while Bagnell added 15 in the contest.

DiGiallonardo also made it into double-digits with 10 points.

"On Saturday, I thought that was the best game that we put together," Pluff said.

After their contest with Stevensville on Friday, Polson will get the winter break to prepare for one whale of a game. With several of the Northwestern A Conference's leading scorers, Ronan will come into Linderman Gym on Jan. 7 with hopes of getting revenge from being bounced out of the divisional tournament last year by the Pirates.

In other words, they'd better get that scoreboard in tip-top shape because it's going to be getting a lot of work from both teams.