Clark Fork’s slow start on offense doomed the Wampus Cats in a 66-40 league loss to Kootenai on Thursday night.

“When the game started, we weren’t mentally tough,” Clark Fork head coach Heath Beason said. “We shot the ball great, but we came out flat.”

Kootenai took advantage of Clark Fork’s slow start by taking a 16-point lead through one quarter of play. The Warriors would take a 40-11 lead into halftime, but Clark Fork battled back in the second half. Cameron Garcia scored of 10 his team-high 15 points in the second half as the Wampus Cats cut into the deficit.

“We finally got our act together and started whittling away at the lead, but we didn’t have enough gas to make it,” Beason said.

Charlie Abbott chipped in 10 points and six rebounds for Clark Fork, while Kooteani’s Tristan Usdrowski led the way with 30 points on four made threes.

Clark Fork (1-4, 0-2 NSL) will look for its first league win against Genesis Prep on Jan. 12. Kootenai moved to 6-1 (2-1 NSL) with the win.

Kootenai 18 22 16 10 — 66

Clark Fork 2 9 17 12 — 40

KOOTENAI — T. Usdrowski 30, Little 0, Maitland 20, Vawter 4, Renner 0, Ausman 5, J. Usdrowski 7.

CLARK FORK — Garcia 15, SanRoman 4, Constantin 7, Heisel 0, Abbott 10, Holbrun 0, Wade 4, Sutton 0, Reuter 0.