by Scott Sacry
The Florence boys and girls basketball teams competed in the District 6B tournament on Feb. 16th-18th. Both Florence teams finished in 3rd place and advanced to the Western B Divisionals, which takes place in Anaconda on Feb. 23rd-25th. In the first round of Divisionals, the Florence girls will play Thompson Falls at 9:45 a.m. on Thursday. The two teams met on December 10, where Thompson Falls won, 55-39. The Florence boys will face Eureka in the first round of Divisional at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday.
The Florence girls were the #3 seed and traveled to #2 Missoula Loyola on Thursday, Feb. 16th and lost, 36-47. The girls fell behind early and couldn’t stage a comeback. Maggie Schneiter led the way with 10 points, Josie Lewis had 8, and Olivia Coulter added 6.
This sent them to the consolation game in Anaconda on Saturday, where they decimated Deer Lodge, 73-26. The Lady Falcons used a potent combination of solid defense and stellar offense to get the victory and earn 3rd place in District 6B. Again, Maggie Schneiter led the scoring with 19 points, followed by Josie Lewis with 13, Olivia Coulter with 10, and Kenzy Pickering and Trista Williams each added 7 points.
The Florence boys were the #2 seed and hosted Anaconda on Friday, February 17th. The Falcons started slow and trailed 21-29 at halftime. The 3rd quarter was more of the same and with 6:15 left in the 4th quarter, Florence was behind, 30-48. The game looked to be over. But Florence slowly started gaining ground, and Anaconda started missing free throws and turning over the ball. With 2 minutes to go, Florence was down 43-51. Then Florence hit three straight 3-pointers and trailed 52-53 with 42 seconds to play. After another Anaconda turnover, Patrick Duchien hit a layup and it was 54-53. Another Anaconda turnover and a Caleb Brossman layup and Florence led 56-53 with 13 seconds left. Then Anaconda, who looked to be dead in the water, hit a three to tie the game at 56-56, and send it to overtime. Florence had finished the game on a miraculous 25-8 run.
With 1:13 left in overtime it was 61-61. But that was all the juice Florence had – they fell behind and couldn’t make it back and lost, 62-66. Patrick Duchien led with 18 points, Caleb Brossman had 10, and Brodie Hinsdale, Tyler Abbott, and Ethan Alexander all added 9.
This loss sent them to the consolation game in Anaconda on Saturday where they faced Arlee and won, 66-59, earning 3rd place in District 6B. Florence led throughout this game, but every time they got up, Arlee made a push. Florence held firm throughout and fought hard to get the victory. Ethan Alexander had a big game with 19 points, Patrick Duchien had 11, Brodie Hinsdale had 8, and Trapper Oster and Caleb Brossman each added 7.