Eighth-grade girls see productive season
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POLSON — The 2012 Polson eighth-grade girls AAU basketball team finished a short season strong after competing in the Glacier Freeze Basketball Tournament in Kalispell last week. With little practice time, the girls played against a top team from Kalispell and saw what it takes to compete at this level. Playing close for the first half but slipping in the second, the girls played hard but fell. The next game was another top team from Missoula that we trailed by only one point in the last minute and lost by four.
By now, the Polson girls knew that they could compete with the best. Winning the next two games against Libby teams put the girls in the championship game of the B bracket against the Columbia Falls Wildkats. The girls faced a half-court defense that they had not seen and were down by 15 points before the half. After adjusting, they came back to within nine points.
This weekend was the second tournament for this team. The team put together an impressive weekend at the Ronan 5-on-5 Tournament, winning all three of their games. Head coach David Whitesell and Assistant Kim Congdon got game plans put together that the girls now understood and played well. The Ronan 5-on-5 Tournament was well-run, and Steve Woll and all the volunteers did a great job.
Our first game was against the same Columbia Falls team that defeated us in Kalispell a week earlier. This time, our girls knew what was coming and pretty much led all the way. The game ended with a 41-34 victory. The next game started out with a big lead against a hard-playing Plains team that would not quit. After a strong run by Plains at the start of the second half, Polson came back and finished with a nine-point advantage. The final game of the season for the team was against a Mission team that started well but wasn’t able to keep up with the tempo of the Polson girls and their defense.
It was a good experience for the girls before going on to high school next year, and parents and fans supported the team with all they had. The team represented the Polson Middle School very well in sportsmanship and competiveness. I am sure that all of us are as proud of the team as I was. (Editor’s note: Tom Feiber is the Polson eighth-grade girls AAU basketball team organizer.)
