Pirates win challenge

KALISPELL — The Polson boys’ basketball team had been here before.

This year and last, the Pirates lost to Columbia Falls in the championship match of the Northwestern A divisional tournament, forcing a challenge game.

Last year it was against Whitefish, this year it was against Ronan.

Last time the two teams played, Ronan lost by 30 points and were looking to avenge the loss.

“We’re going to do opposite to not have a repeat,” Ronan head coach Steve Woll said before the game.

Polson entered the game knowing it had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

“Knowing we beat them by 30 last time, we were able to relax a little and just play,” Polson senior Derrick Rathe said.

The only difference between last year’s tournament and this years was the outcome; last year, the Pirates lost by four. This time around, Polson stomped through to state with a 16-point win.

“It feels good,” Polson head coach Brad Pluff said after the game. “It relieves all the stress from the last two days. This is a little bit of redemption from last year.”

The Pirates opened the game with a five-point run before Ronan junior Kevin Wroblewski put the Chiefs on the board two minutes into the back-and-forth  game.

Pirate sophomore Tyler Krell added a rebound for a 9-2 lead.

Woll said Polson rebounded better than Ronan in the first quarter.

“We let them get too many boards,” he said of Polson’s eight first-quarter offensive rebounds.

Ronan tied the game with steals from sophomore Marcus Hungerford, junior Lucas Black and junior Justin Dustybull.

“We played hard and left it all on the floor,” Woll said.

On the third play, Dustybull passed to Black who drove to the net for two and was fouled on the play, adding one at the line.

Polson pulled to a three-point lead after one quarter behind three points from junior Sheldon Fisher.

Wroblewski scored the first points of the second quarter before Polson made eight unanswered points. Ronan stopped the scoring and went on its own six-point run including a free throw from Hungerford and senior Colten Cheff going 2-for-2 at the line.

Just before the buzzer, Tanner received a pass from Hungerford to pull the Chiefs three points from the Pirates at the half. Tanner led the Chiefs with 12 points. Hungerford added 11 in the game.

After the break, Polson continued to put up points while Ronan added only five, constantly playing catch-up.

Woll said constantly playing behind caught up to the team, as well as fatigue.

“It wore on everyone,” he said. “We played five games in four days, but we battled through it.”

Junior Louis Mohr hit a 3-point shot before Dustybull forced another Ronan steal and passed to Tanner, who made a behind-the-back pass to Black for two points.

Tanner made another steal for Ronan and went down for two to bring the score to 33-29.

Polson’s Mohr hit a 3-point shot before Ronan entered bonus territory with 5.7 seconds left in the third.

Ronan was unable to capitalize on the advantage and ended the third mark down by 10.

With five minutes left in the game, Tanner put up two points before Krell took his fourth foul of the game.

Ronan was sent to the line twice, but couldn’t make a free throw as Polson received its 10th foul of the game before the Pirates won the game 54-38.

“Its definitely a weight off our shoulders,” Polson senior Tim Rausch said after the challenge game. “It was worth the wait.”

Mohr led the Pirates with 28 points, including two 3-point baskets, and Rausch added nine.