by Thomas Spencer and Scott Sacry
“Kasidy has been a monster all season: practice and games,” said Florence head coach Bryan Neuman of his senior Kasidy Yeoman who dropped 34 in the Lady Falcons’ win against Corvallis Saturday. Yeoman struck early with a three from the wing but mainly her scoring came from either powerful drives to the basket or in transition from the steal or rebound. The Class B Falcons defeated the Class A Blue Devils, 57-37.
The Falcon defense was fired up from the start and nearly kept the Blue Devils scoreless in the first quarter. Commenting on their tenacious defense, Neuman remarked, “It’s been solid all season, and when we get after people defensively, things happen for us on the offensive end.” Which was abundantly true of this game as well. Many of the Falcons’ 57 points came from a steal and score.
Yeoman was followed by her teammate Olivia Coulter who accounted for 14 points, almost all from the three-point line. Kolbi Wood picked up two baskets, Gwen Reed picked up two points from the foul line and Kylie Kovatch dropped one from the field and a free throw for 3 points total.
Surely a team effort and contributions from all seven Falcons. “I liked our effort,” said coach Neuman. “Our focus the whole season has been to push the pace offensively but with only seven healthy players it gets hard sometimes.”
The Lady Blue Devils, for their part, did not stand by without putting up a fight. After a tough first half with only 10 points, the Blue Devils rallied to 18 in the third quarter with nearly all players contributing in that quarter, notably 3 from sophomore Emelia Schairer who scored 10 on the game, and 3 from senior Madeline Gilder who, in addition to a monster block in the first, accounted for 10 on the game.
On Friday, the Florence girls played Bigfork. The Falcons lost, 57-76. Yeoman had 31 points in that game.
The Corvallis boys’ team hosted Florence on Saturday in another all valley matchup. The high-powered Falcons proved too much for the Blue Devils and won easily, 87-55. Florence’s Beau Neal had a huge night, scoring 29 points. Jace Pederson also had a big night with 18, and Aiden Wayne added nine. Corvallis was led by Donovan Potter with 14, Leif Jessop with 12, and David Broch with nine.
The Florence boys started with a bang, scoring the game’s first 12 points and led 21-6 after the first quarter. Corvallis settled down in the second quarter as Donovan Potter and Leif Jessop hit back to back three pointers, but the Falcons’ relentless pressure on offense and defense overpowered the Blue Devils and they fell behind, 45-21, by halftime. The second half was more of the same as the Falcons rolled to an 87-55 victory.
The Falcons are hitting their stride and will be a tough team to beat moving toward tournament time. Earlier in the week they decimated Anaconda, 71-23. They led 49-10 at halftime and rolled to an easy victory. Blake Shoupe had 14 points and Jace Pederson had 13 to lead a well-balanced attack.