Badgers cut down by Libby Loggers

The Badger boys basketball team suffered a heartbreaking defeat at home last Thursday night when the Libby Loggers staged a comeback in the final minutes to win the game 52-49.

An aggressive Bonners Ferry squad drew first blood and jumped out to an early 10-point lead in the first eight minutes. With point guard Chris Sabin at the helm, the Badgers stayed on the attack throughout the entire first half.

The home team was attacking on defense as well. Bonners Ferry forced a slew of turnovers during those first two quarters, which kept the Loggers on their heels and created some wide-open fast break opportunities for the Badgers.

It was the offense that looked most impressive, however. Sabin was explosive, dishing out precise passes and acrobatic layups that baffled Libby’s defenders.

At one point, about halfway through the second, Sabin drove to the bucket but then stopped short in the lane to send a perfectly executed between-the-legs bounce pass to his teammate, who was there at the post to finish. The very next play, Sabin faked like he was going to drive, then pulled up to drain a three-pointer.

Libby was persistent, however. While their shooting was mediocre in the first half, they continued to fire off threes and made just enough to stay in it.

As the halftime buzzer sounded, Bonners Ferry walked off the court with confidence as well as a commanding 32-24 lead.

The Badgers brought that confidence back onto the court with them, as they continued to keep the Loggers at bay in the third. While the offense didn’t put up many points in the quarter, Sabin, who scored 13 points in the game, continued to pick Libby’s defense apart. The combination of Kaleb Stockton and Caleb Harrington — who were both shooting great from the outside and put up 27 combined points — also made for a dynamic offensive front and helped Bonners Ferry hold onto the lead in the third.

Unfortunately for the Badgers, that lead was about to come unraveled as the Loggers staged an impressive fourth quarter comeback.

That comeback was led by Libby’s Ryggs Johnston, who put up an astounding 19 points in the fourth quarter alone.

The Badgers, on the other hand, couldn’t buy a bucket in the fourth, and they watched their lead dwindle to four points in the first two minutes. They kept fighting the Loggers off, making the occasional clutch shot to maintain their minimal lead, but things really came to a head when Libby made it a one possession game with 1:29 on the clock.

Then, with 40 seconds left to play, the Loggers made their biggest three-pointer of the game to go up by two.

Bonners Ferry, down for the first time in the game, hurried the ball down the court and got the ball to Pacen Pluid, who was fouled down low. Pluid went 1-1 at the line, tying the game up at 49 and sending the crowd into a frenzy.

With the seconds ticking away, the Badgers went into an all-out full court press, but a sprinting Libby player got behind their last defender and was fouled as he made the layup. Sinking the and-one free throw was the nail in Bonners Ferry’s coffin, as the Badgers barely had enough time to get the ball inbounds, much less score a three-pointer to send the game into overtime.

A shocked and dismayed crowd watched as the Loggers celebrated and the Badgers stared down at their sneakers, wondering how it all happened so quickly.

With this loss, the Badgers are now 3-5 overall.