Lady Badgers come up short against Wildcats: close but no cigar
—Photo by DAC COLLINS Wenk, whose rebounding helped her team stay in the game against Kellogg, lines up a shot from inside the paint. This one would drop, giving Bonners Ferry the lead late in the fourth quarter.
The Bonners Ferry girls varsity basketball team played the Kellogg Wildcats at home on Saturday night, and after four exciting quarters filled with nearly twice that many lead changes, the Badgers lost by two (47-49).
The teams stayed neck and neck in the first quarter, but strong shooting by the Wildcats allowed them to creep out to an early four-point lead.
The away team built on this lead at the beginning of the second quarter, driving right through the Badgers’ defense and eventually going up by eight, which forced Badgers’ head coach Rich Feickert to call a timeout. His team responded well to the break in the action and brought the deficit back down to three.
This second-quarter charge was led by point guard Kassy Skeen, who wasn’t going to let a knee brace slow her down— head coach Rich Feickert said the injury, sustained during the Libby game, is healing well, but that the knee is still not at full strength.
The Wildcats were still on top by the time the halftime buzzer sounded, but they wouldn’t be there for long.
The Badgers, who seemed more energetic after the halftime break, went on a 5-0 run to start the third quarter. They maintained a one-possession lead for most of the third but eventually allowed Kellogg to regain the lead just before the start of the last and most hotly contested quarter of the game.
While the Badgers allowed themselves multiple opportunities to secure the win in the fourth quarter, it all came down to free throws in the end. Kellogg shot 81 percent from behind the line, while Bonners Ferry shot 46 percent, and as head coach Rich Feickert explained, “It’s hard to win a close game giving up double digits on the line.”
Kellogg was holding onto a seven point lead with 6:56 to go in the game, but two clutch three’s in a row courtesy of Kadi Bateman cut that lead down to one.
A few minutes later, with Kellogg back up by three, Bateman was able to drive to the bucket, lay it up and draw the foul, giving her an opportunity to tie it up from the line. Bateman missed the and-one free throw, but Miranda Wenk was there with the rebound, setting up an inbounds play that allowed her to score an easy bucket, bringing the score to 42-41.
Kellogg would take the lead right back, but the Badgers followed suit and with less than a minute left, the scoreboard read 47-46, Badgers.
An intentional foul by Kellogg sent Grace Coughlin to the line for a chance to make it a three point game. Coughlin missed, then watched as the Wildcats made two free throws to go ahead by one. Coughlin would get one more high-pressure opportunity to win the game from the foul line, but the shot rimmed out.
Losing this nail-biter brings the Lady Badgers’ overall record to 6-6. They will travel to Priest River on Friday, Jan. 27 to take on the Spartans.