The Libby Loggers dropped their first game in the divisional tournament to Frenchtown Thursday evening, 57-27.

Before last night’s game, head coach Josh Bean said his team was ready and the mood was good in practice.

“Since the kids know how the tournament works, we have had a pretty good mood in practice. Drawing Frenchtown helped that, with us beating them at home. There is a belief that we can do it again, and that is the first step.”

That belief helped the Loggers fight to a good first quarter, but it couldn’t carry them the rest of the way.

“We have a good first quarter,” Bean said. “Then we struggled to score the rest of the way.”

The Loggers now face the loser of this afternoon’s game between second seed Polson and third seed Whitefish. The winner of that game will face the team that loses the semi-final game between top-seeded Columbia Falls and the winner of the Whitefish-Polson game in the consolation at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Bean acknowledged the difficulties his team has faced this season, but commended the boys for their work and effort.

“This year has been a little rough because it didn’t go the way we expected it to go. We lost some really tough games early in the season that we had chances to win, and that set us back a little. The great thing about our kids is they come to practice and work hard. Our seniors have done a nice job of modeling that,” he said.

Bean also expressed his appreciation to the fans that supported Libby Logger boys basketball this season.

“I want to thank all of the fans that came out and supported Libby Logger basketball over the course of the year,” he said.