The Valley Journal

Jim Blow/Valley Journal

Chief 189-pounder Toby Cheff ignores a hand in his face as he settles into a pin of Darby's Matt Converse on Friday. Cheff was one of four Ronan wrestlers who went undefeated at the Western Montana Duals, held at the Ronan Event Center Friday and Saturday.

By Jim Blow
Valley Journal
RONAN — The Chiefs capped a busy weekend of wrestling with a 42-39 dual victory over Libby Saturday evening to claim fifth place in the Western Montana Duals. Ronan hosted the two-day tournament in the Ronan Event Center, which kept six mats full of wrestling duals, including a fair amount of exhibition matches.
Corvallis won the tournament with a 51-25 championship dual win over Frenchtown. Columbia Falls was third, beating Glacier JV 39-36.
Ronan opened the tournament with a pair of dual wins over Darby (72-12) and Arlee (59-20). Ronan won all of eight of the contested matches against Darby, giving up just 12 points on forfeits.
"Against Darby we went started out on fire ... with six pins and two decisions," Ronan head coach Dustyn Azure said. Ronan also had seven pins and ........
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Aaric Bryan/Valley Journal

Lady Bulldog Ashley Courville lunges to save a ball from going out of bounds in the second quarter against Troy. Courville had a career-high 14 points in the game, but it was her defensive effort that impressed her coach.

By Aaric Bryan
Valley Journal
ST. IGNATIUS — After a 41-23 uninspiring loss to the Lady Red Devils in Noxon to start the week, the Lady Bulldogs flat got after the Lady Trojans to pick up their first conference win of the season.
At home Saturday, the Lady Bulldogs were ferocious on defense, not allowing a Lady Trojan to bring the ball up the court unharassed and crashing after every rebound or loose ball. Their tenacious defense limited Troy to only seven points in the second half as they cruised to a 41-23 redeeming victory.
“We wrote on the board before the game we want to play hard, play smart and play together and I thought we did all those things,” Mission coach Les Rice said. “Everything we kind of talked about played out tonight.”
Sophomore Ashley Courville led the Bulldogs with a career-high 14 points on 4-for-4 shooting from 2-point range and 2-for-3 shooting behind the 3-point arc. Five of Courville’s points came late in the second quarter after the Lady Trojan’s went on a 7-0 run to narrow the Lady Bulldogs’ lead to .....

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By Aaric Bryan
Valley Journal
PABLO — Behind the hot shooting of their freshman guard, Two Eagle River snared their first win of the season.
Clayton Malatare, matched his uniform number, going off for 24 points against St. Regis at home Thursday in a 71-56 conference victory.
Malatare was one of three Eagles to finish in double figures against the District 14-C Tigers. T.J. Cutfinger finished with 18 points and Trevor Butterfly finished with 12 points.
The Eagles couldn’t ride the momentum of their first win of the season and fell to Lincoln 59-43 at home Saturday. The Eagles couldn’t stop Lynx Jesse Erickson’s, who slashed to the basket for an easy 16 points.
The Eagles went 17 of 52 (33 percent) from 2-point range, but were only 1 of 15 behind the 3-point arc. Cutfinger led the Eagles with 18 points. The junior also had nine rebounds and three steals. James Maestas finished with 14 points with 10 of them coming in the first half. Maestas pulled down nine rebounds, dished out three assists and had three steals. Butterfly pitched in with six points and seven rebounds........
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Aaric Bryan/Valley Journal

Mission-Charlo 119-pounder Casey Nitschke stretches out his Columbia Falls opponent to earn some near-fall points at the Western Montana Duals Saturday. Nitschke lost the match, but finished the duals by pinning the last two wrestlers he faced.

By Aaric Bryan
Valley Journal
RONAN — The Mission-Charlo Bulldogs picked up three team wins and had some of their younger wrestlers make big gains at the Western Montana Duals in Ronan Friday and Saturday.
“I think we improved individually and team-wise,” Mission coach Lyle Cronk said. “We kind of caught fire at the end. The team got excited and got into it. There was a lot of jumping up and down and the kids responded by wrestling some pretty tough matches at the end.”
After starting the duals with a 69-15 loss to eventual champion Corvallis, Cronk said his team was feeling hammered on, but finished Friday with a 57-20 thrashing of Superior. The Bulldogs started Saturday with a 39-31 loss to the Flathead JV team in a dual where the Bulldogs lead most of the way, but lost their final two matches by pin. They followed their loss to Flathead with a 51-27 loss to the Class A Columbia Falls and wrapped up the weekend with a pair of Western B-C victories. After beating Thompson Falls 43-42 on criteria, the Bulldogs ended the tournament on a high note, beating ......
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Jim Blow/Valley Journal

Nicole Davey slides down the baseline to pop for a short two against Glacier Saturday night.

By Jim Blow
Valley Journal
POLSON — The Lady Pirates are still trying to gel after returning from the holiday break, but they picked up a conference win last week and tested themselves against a good Class AA squad.
Polson put up 34 points in the first half to take control early in a 51-26 win in Ronan last Tuesday night, then sputtered a bit late Saturday night for a 65-40 loss at home to Class AA Glacier.
The Lady Pirates put a lot of pressure on the Maidens early on Tuesday night, keying a 34-15 first half run.
"They're young and we knew that. So we put some pressure on them and got some quick layups early," Polson head coach Randy Kelley said. "We tried to take (Nina) Orozco out with Sierra (Pete) with a box-and-one (defense). Defensively it worked out well for us. I thought we played real strong in the first six minutes. Then we got into a bit of a lull ... we just weren't getting after it."
The Lady Pirates didn't shoot particularly well in the second half and they got in a little foul trouble. Then they quit attacking the basket and their scoring dropped to 17 in the second half, though they cruised to a 51-26 win.
Riley Kenney had a solid double-double on the night with 15 points and 12 rebounds for Polson. Breanne Kelley added 12 and Pete hit for eight points.
"Riley had a good game ... That first half she really owned the middle and got a lot of good looks under the hoop," coach Kelley said. "She had six offensive rebounds and put a few of those back. She worked hard on defensive positioning, too, and it paid off for her."
Polson also shot 15-for-19 from the free throw line, an encouraging performance that the Lady Pirates continued early on Saturday night against Glacier.
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