Hungry Horse News

It was a tough ending to an otherwise good season.

The Columbia Falls boys basketball team lost to Browning in loser-out play, 61-46, Friday at the Western A divisional tourney in Hamilton.

The Cats led by two after the first quarter, but Browning went on a 21-8 run against the Cats in the second quarter.

Coach Chris Finberg said the Cats had too many turnovers in the quarter, which resulted in some easy buckets for the Indians.

“It was a deciding stretch of the game,” he said.

The boys were battling illness during the tourney, too, which didn’t help.

The Cats would cut the margin to 10 with about 4 minutes left in the fourth against the Indians, but that’s as close as they would get.

The Cats were steamrolled by Butte Central in the tourney opener Thursday, 64-34.

Finberg noted that Butte is a very good team and should vie for the state title next week.

While the tourney didn’t go their way, the future looks bright for the Wildcats, as they had three starters that were just sophomores — Jace Hill, Alihn Anderson and Cody Schweikert. Two other sophomores — Hunter Goodman and Mark Robison — came off the bench to give the Cats quality minutes all season long.

Hill led the team in scoring, averaging about 17.6 points a game. He led also led all of state A in assists, averaging 5.7 per game at the point for the Cats.

The Cats also have Bryce Dunham, a solid post player, who is a junior and will return next year as well.

The Cats end the year with a 11-10 record overall.

It was the first year since 2014 that Columbia Falls finished above .500 and the first year that all three teams — the freshmen, junior varsity and varsity all had winning records.

“We’re trending in the right direction,” Finberg said.