COLUMBIA FALLS — Down three starters and facing its toughest competition for the Northwestern A crown, No. 1 Columbia Falls (9-1 overall, 4-0 Northwestern A) looked toward its bench on Saturday, getting a career-high 24 points from senior post Andrea Getts in a decisive 55-42 girls basketball win over Frenchtown, earning a season sweep of the Broncs (6-4, 2-2).

Getts was unstoppable in the second half, scoring 18 points with three rebounds, two steals and a block. She personally outscored the Frenchtown team 11-2 in the final four minutes of the game to turn a four-point lead into a comfortable win.

“We’re three players short, it was an opportunity for somebody else to step up,” Columbia Falls coach Cary Finberg said.

“That’s a nice luxury to have, when you have a senior post coming off the bench like that, that accepts her role and she did a good job with it. She worked hard and ran the floor. When she got her opportunity she took advantage of it.”

While it was close throughout, the Wildkats didn’t trail after the 2:28-mark of the first quarter. Strong defense and rebounding, coupled with an offense that took care of the ball, was enough to overcome missing starters Haley Belgarde, Ciera Finberg and Summer Burlage, a group that averages a combined 21.1 points a game.

“We were a lot more aggressive tonight (than Friday against Flathead),” Finberg said.

“Our movement was better, our cuts were better. I don’t think we saw quite the pressure we saw from Flathead. I wasn’t sure, being shorthanded, how we were going to handle that. Those kids stepped up huge.

“For us to only have 12 turnovers and 19 assists, that’s a credit to the girls making the right decision and moving the ball.”

Columbia Falls slowly built its lead, led by its defense. The Wildkats were able to pick through the Broncs’ 2-3 zone in the second half, getting to the rim to turn a three-point game midway through the third quarter into a 37-28 lead entering the fourth. Back-to-back 3-pointers from sophomore guard Brooke Yarnall cut the lead to 44-40 with 4:42 left in the game, but the Kats shut them down after that, holding them to a jumper in the final seconds while dumping the ball to Getts in the post to extend the lead.

Winter Kemppainen had 11 points, four assists and three rebounds for the Wildkats, who had four players with at least four assists. Cydney Finberg had seven points, six rebounds, seven assists and three steals and both Kiara Burlage and Miranda Livingston had four assists. Allyson Gimbel led Columbia Falls with nine rebounds.

Vanessa Stavish, who is second in Class A in scoring this season averaging 18.3 points per game, had 11 points for Frenchtown. Yarnall had 10.

The win gives the Wildkats a two-game lead in the conference, a significant advantage going into the stretch run of the season.

“Come divisional time that’s huge,” Finberg said.

“We’ve got some games ahead of us. I thought the last two weeks, with playing Glacier, playing Flathead and Frenchtown tonight, the girls handled it for the most part pretty well. I think we became better because of it.”

Frenchtown 7 7 14 14 — 42

Columbia Falls 10 9 18 18 — 55

FRENCHTOWN — Haley Cyr 8, Vanessa Stavish 11, Alli Moe 2, Brooke Yarnall 10, Keegan Wickman 5, Lacey Hochhalter 4, Laci Willett 2.

COLUMBIA FALLS — Cydney Finberg 7, Ellie Johnson 2, Andrea Getts 24, Winter Kemppainen 11, Miranda Livingston 4, Kiara Burlage 5, Allyson Gimbel 3.