Polson 8th grade AAU girls team finishes strong in Ronan

RONAN — They didn’t have much time to jell as a team, but accomplished it in just two short weeks.

Starting last week, the Polson eighth grade AAU girls team entered the Glacier Freeze Basketball Tournament in Kalispell.

RONAN — They didn’t have much time to jell as a team, but accomplished it in just two short weeks.

Starting last week, the Polson eighth grade AAU girls team entered the Glacier Freeze Basketball Tournament in Kalispell.

With little practice time, they entered play against a top team from Kalispell and saw what it takes to compete at a high level.

Playing close for the first half but slipping in the second, the girls played hard but fell.

The next game was another top team from Missoula that they trailed by only one point in the last minute, and ended up losing by four. After that, the team knew that they could compete with the best. Winning the next two games against Libby teams put the girls in the championship game of the B bracket against the Columbia Falls WildKats. The girls faced a half-court defense that they had not seen and were down by 15 points before the half. After adjusting they came back and only lost by nine.

This weekend was the second tournament for this team and they put together an impressive weekend at the Ronan 5-on-5 Tournament winning all three of their games. Head coach David Whitesell and assistant Kim Congdon put together game plans that the girls now understood and they played well.

The first game was against the same C-Falls team that defeated them in Kalispell a week earlier. This time our girls knew what was coming and led almost all the way en route to a 41-34 victory.

The next game started out with a big lead against a hard playing Plains team that would not quit. After a strong run by Plains at the start of the second half, Polson came back and finished with a nine-point advantage.

The final game of the season for the team was against a Mission team. Mission started the game well but wasn’t able to keep up with the tempo of the Polson girls and their defense, who took the victory.

It was a good experience for the girls before going on to high school next year. Parents and fans supported the team with all they had and the team represented the Polson Middle School very well in sportsmanship and competiveness.