Polson preps for Districts

Polson Pirates boy’s basketball coach Randy Kelley developed a philosophical approach towards getting his Pirates prepped for Class A District play on Feb. 15-17 at the Ronan Events Center.

Kelley knows his young team is carving its identity even after they secured a first-round bye headed into the District tournament defeating Libby in the Feb. 10 regular-season finale 63-54.

The victory against the Loggers was equivalent to winning a playoff game because it secured a first-round bye for the Pirates. Polson will face the winner of the Libby-Whitefish game in the first round of the playoffs. They have a combined 4-0 regular season record against the Bulldogs and Loggers.

Kelley knows the regular season record against an opponent can be inconsequential in the playoffs and the most important factor of winning in the postseason is confidence.

“You just have to look at the positives,” Kelley said. “When we came out against Libby, we didn’t get after them offensively. We only scored 23 points in the first half and that is something that you have to do during a tournament is gel. During the second half against Libby, there were players that emerged that haven’t given a lot offensively and our team did a great job against Libby. In practice, we just really try to get our players as much confidence as possible and get all of our kids playing with confidence.”

The victory allowed the Pirates to get a bye in the playoffs, even though Kelley admits he doesn’t put much stock into bye games.

“If we would have lost to Libby, we would have gotten the third seed on Thursday,” Kelley said. “Currently, Libby and Whitefish are both playing really well. The Libby-Whitefish game will be a good game to watch and we will be preparing for both teams headed into Districts.”

During the playoffs, what separates the winner and losers is only a couple of possessions, which means the minute details are significant when preparing for the playoffs.

“I really don’t know if I like having the bye,” Kelley admitted. “This will be the third time that we play either Whitefish or Libby and the last time we played them, it came down to the little things. Whitefish is gaining momentum and we will have to keep their spurts on offense to a minimum.”

If the Pirates were to play Libby, their stopper Conner Lanier is who Kelley refers to as “the most important player on the court” because his job responsibility is to contain Ryggs Johnston, who is headed to college to play golf at Arizona State. He is just nearly as well known for his shooting prowess on the hardwood as he is on the greens.

“I thought Conner did a great job on Ryggs and we, as a team, all know what we have to do in order to get things done against Libby,” Kelley said. “To me, the stopper is the most important person on the floor and Conner did a great job even though he got into a little bit of foul trouble and has pretty good size on him. Conner is a gutty kid and he does a great job on Ryggs. He made some free throws late in the game and all of our kids really stepped up. I am not even looking for him to score. We need someone to put a stop on Ryggs and he was able to contain him to 15 points. He is doing a great job.”

Offensively, Kelley said he would like to see his team develop more patience when it comes to their shot selection and limiting unforced turnovers. The Pirates fell to the No. 1 seeded team in the conference, Browning, by ten points after committing a total of 25 unforced turnovers.

“Conner was excellent on him and if we have Libby in the next game, we might change things scheme-wise as far as defensively,” Kelley said.

Kelley knows from experience that there is something intrinsic about tournaments and he has plenty of reference to the topsy-turvy nature of contests dating back to his first year as the Pirates head coach.

“My first year, we played Frenchtown and they beat us twice,” recalled Kelley. “We had them in the challenge game and ended up beating them. We made a 10-0 run on them in the last two minutes of the game and that was the difference in that game.”

If the Pirates play Whitefish, a team they’ve defeated handily 57-26 and 58-51, Kelley said he knows the Bulldogs will present more of a challenge than the first meeting.

“They are a totally different team,” Kelley said. “We didn’t press and we might do it this time. It is a matter of time where our kids are and they buy into what we are selling them on defense and get after it. That is all we can ask them to do and want to make sure they do it.”

Kelley said he put his team in various scenarios in practice in order to simulate scenarios that might happen in a game scenario.

“We put them in different scenarios to simulate the ups-and-downs during the course of a game because every team will go on runs,” Kelley said. “We use our timeouts wisely to stop a little momentum and we practice different scenarios in practice. That isn’t new to the kids. We put a larger emphasis on this in practice and some of those things we might use in a game scenario.”

The top four teams out of the district will advance to Divisionals Feb 22-24 at the Butte Civic Center.

“Our last State games had shifts in every game we played in,” Kelley said. “Hopefully, we come out on the correct side of the momentum. We weren’t so lucky and not only in one but several. We are hoping that they are in our favor.”

The Pirates will await the winner of Whitefish and Libby in the second round of the Western 14-A Districts in Ronan.

Polson 63, Libby 54

At SKC gym in Pablo on Senior Night, the host Pirates and the visiting Loggers duked it out on the hardcourt with the NWA conference second seed hanging in the balance. Seasoned seniors Sam Schultz, Shade Main, Weston Danley and Asa Askan combined for almost half of Pirate point productivity. The seesaw contest vacillated back and forth and was tied at 52 all with just over three minutes remaining. The Pirates were able to secure the outcome with clutch conversions at the charity stripe.

Robin Erickson crested the century (100) point plateau for season scoring, while Connor Lanier surpassed the double century (200) threshold for scoring on the season. Polson (7-3, 9-9), Libby (5-5, 11-7)

Libby 9 17 15 13 – 54

Polson 6 17 15 25 – 63

LIBBY – Brian Peck 8, JJ Davis 13, Ryggs Johnston 16, Logan Christensen 6, Nik Jones 5, Keith Johnson 6.

POLSON – Connor Lanier 5 5-5 15, Robin Erickson 5 3-5 14, Sam Schultz 5 2-2 12, Shade Main 4 1-1 9, Weston Danley 3 1-3 7, Trevor Schultz 1 1-3 3, Ryker Wenderoth 0 2-2 2, Asa Askan 1.

3FGs: L (Johnston 3, Davis 2), P1-9 (Erickson 1-1). P34reb (Danley 10, Lanier 7, Main 7, Erickson 2, S.Schultz 2, T.Schultz 2, Micah Askan 2, A.Askan, Wenderoth). P14ast (Lanier 3, Main 3, Erickson 2, A.Askan *2, M.Askan, S.Schultz, Wenderoth, noID1). P5stl (Danley 2, Wenderoth, A.Askan, Erickson). P2blk (Lanier 2). (Sa10Feb18)

Asterisk (*) denotes stat variant (s) where unofficial JH informal tally differs from sideline specs: P12a (A.Askan 1a, noID0a)

Bigfork 63, Polson 46

At Bigfork in the boys’ battle of the bays, the visiting Pirates started out on a blistering first frame pace, riding the shoulders of a quartet of triples by Asa Askan. But the undefeated Vikings showcased why they merit their Class B top-ranking with a strong inside-outside game that controlled the tempo of the remainder of the contest. Robin Erickson surpassed the century mark for varsity career scoring.

NWA Polson (8-9), 6B Bigfork (16-0)

Polson 19 7 10 10 – 46

Bigfork 14 19 19 11 – 63

POLSON – Asa Askan 5 0-0 14, Connor Lanier 2 9-10 13, Shade Main 3 2-2 8, Robin Erickson 3 0-0 6, Weston Danley 2 0-0 5.

BIGFORK – Beau Santisteven 18, Anders Epperly 17, Logan Gilliard 11, Clayton Reichenbach 5, Colten Reichenbach 4, Luke Schmidt 3, Chase Chappuis 3, Logan Taylor 2.

3FGs: P5-15 (A.Askan 4-8, Danley 1-1). P27reb (A.Askan 8, Main 6, Erickson 5, Lanier 4, Danley 4). P8ast (Lanier 3, Main 2, A.Askan, Erickson, Sam Schultz). P5stl (Main 2. A.Askan 2, S.Schultz). P2blk (Main 2). (Th08Dec18)