Pirates continue to build momentum, get ready for rematch for Ronan

The Polson Pirates boys’ basketball team just keeps coming up with critical victories as they start the second half of their conference schedule with a 58-51 conference road victory over Whitefish.

The victory over the Bulldogs marked the second consecutive victory over Whitefish. In the first conference game, the boys defeated Whitefish 57-26 on Dec. 15.

The second go-round against Whitefish was much more difficult but Polson was still able to manufacture the same amount of point production en route to a 58-51 victory Jan. 20.

Pirates Coach Randy Kelley said he noticed a “significant” improvement for Whitefish’s young team the second time around and anticipates a difficult match up if they face them during the Feb. 15-17 Districts at the Ronan Events Center.

“I thought we played well in the first game and we played more energy on our 1-3-1 which led to run-outs for baskets for us,” Kelley said. “I have to give credit for Whitefish because they handled the ball better in the first go-round and we shot the ball better. I’ve seen them and they’ve improved drastically. I think we shot the ball pretty well and especially the three-ball with ten three-pointers from those four different guys. It was kind of a key time and they settled in and doubled their score. That was a big plus was our four three-pointers in the third period.”

Earlier in the week, the Pirates played the defending Class AA champion Glacier team and played them close until they committed multiple turnovers that led to easy transition buckets for the Wolf Pack.

Polson was unable to keep pace with the Wolf Pack when they lost 63-48.

“We usually play pretty well against Glacier,” Kelley said of his team’s previous contests with Glacier. “I believe the turning point was in the first half and that led directly to points for them. They responded pretty well when they put 23 points on the board in that third period. I thought we were a little tired and that led to us watching a bit and not rebounding. It was a good game for us this time of year. We can’t really get too worked up about the game. We have to move on and learn from it.”

Playing the defending champions in a non-conference game not only gave Kelley an opportunity to experiment with various offensive and defensive looks, it also gave his Pirates an opportunity to work on various phases of their game.

“Right now, our emphasis is our defense because it is just not where it needs to be,” Kelley said. “We are rotating in our man-to-man and not moving our zone defense. It’s going to take some work and playing with a little more heart moving forward. There were instances where we got caught watching instead of playing the game and defense is something that we need to improve upon if we want to keep on playing in February.”

Kelley said he is always focused on his Pirates improving on a weekly basis and as they prepare for the final three weeks of the regular season before they will enter Districts Feb. 15-17 in Ronan, he is hoping to tighten up his team’s play moving forward.

“We are getting better and we are still working on being patient because we are wasting some shots, we aren’t taking good shots and we are very off-balance sometimes,” Kelley said. “It’s just a matter of patience and trusting one another. Definitely on the offensive side of the ball we have to be more patient and this time of year you have to take care of the basketball. We will have spurts where we take care of the basketball and then we will have a bad turnover and that turns into two to three direct points and layups. We need to clean some of that up and continue to improve in those areas.”

The Pirates basketball team will have another difficult schedule later in the week. By press time, the Pirates will have already faced Hamilton, a team that is ranked No. 1 in Class A, will follow-up with a road game against their rival Ronan, and will finish their week against Columbia Falls.

In the Pirates’ 77-75 double overtime victory over Ronan on Jan. 5, they struggled against one of their marquee players Anthony Camel.

“The first game, that Camel kid was able to get some great work inside and out and (Ezekiel) Misa is a hard-nosed player that can find the hoop at any time,” Kelley said. “We have to be on our ‘A’ game as far as defense, limit the turnovers and limit what they like to do.’”

Kelley said he is also mindful of some of the Chiefs’ role players like Dallas Durheim.

“Dallas is capable of double-figure points on any given night and it’s a good matchup with two similar teams,” Kelley said. “Our style of play might be a little slower than Ronan but we will have our hands full with their offense. Offensively, I think it’s going to be an exciting game. It’s going to be nice to play on their floor and it might take four overtimes to decide the winner of this game.”