Polson Lady Pirates going to State A tournament

HAMILTON — The Polson Lady Pirates, who placed second in the Northwestern A tournament, open play at the State A tournament at Hamilton High School gym Thursday, March 11 at 6:30 p.m. against the Sidney Lady Eagles.

The Lady Pirates placed second at the Northwestern A divisional tourney to earn a spot on in the State A tournament. They also placed second behind Columbia Falls in the regular season and both teams received byes and opened play in the semifinals.

The Wildkats topped the Lady Pirates 48-46 in the championship game of the Northwestern A divisional to earn the divisions top seed for the State A tourney.

The Lady Pirates with Breanne Kelley leading the charge with 15 points beat Libby 38-32 in Northwestern A semifinal game. The victory earned them a spot in the NWA tourney championship game against the Columbia Falls Wildkats who beat Whitefish 52-26 in their semifinal match up.

The Lady Pirates and Wildkats played even the entire game but it was Columbia Falls who were able to walk away with a narrow two-point victory.

Polson opened with a 13-5 first quarter run then Columbia Falls countered with a 15-8 second quarter and trailed Polson by one point (21-20) at the half. Both teams scored 11 points in the third quarter and the Lady Pirates led 32-31 entering the fourth quarter.

The Wildkats outscored Polson 17-14 in the final quarter to walk away with the 48-46 victory. The outcome was in doubt until the final seconds of the game when a pair of freebies by Columbia Falls with 34 seconds remaining the game put them up by one; they were able to add another point to their side of the scoring ledger to earn the victory.

Lady Pirate Riley Kenney led Polson with 12 points; Nicole Davey had 11 and Breanne Kelley 10 points.

WildKat Kelsey DeWit led Columbia Falls with 20 points.