Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana

Trojans pickup fifth straight victory

Going into last week, the Whitehall High School boys basketball team knew they would face a daunting task with road matchups at Anaconda and Jefferson High School. The Trojans met the challenge head on and were able to pick up two key victories.

Whitehall opened the week Thursday with a 63-50 overtime victory over Anaconda, and won their fifth in a row Friday 61-40 over the Panthers.

In the Saturday matchup in Boulder, the Trojans were paced by a well balanced scoring attack with three players in double figures. Max Feight led the team with 20, Wyatt Alexander had 14, and Ryan Murphy finished with 10 points. Whitehall also had big games from Cade Briggs with eight and Sawyer Keener with six points.

Whitehall head coach Zach McLean said it was big for his team to get the impressive nights from Murphy, Briggs, and Keener.

"It's huge. Those three making shots makes us more difficult to defend and relieves a lot of pressure on Max and Wyatt," McLean said.

Braden Smith added three points for the Trojans who led 34-24 at half and outscored Boulder 27-16 in the second half.

ANACONDA

During his time as a player and first eight seasons as head coach of the Whitehall High School boys basketball team, McLean had never left Anaconda's Memorial Gymnasium with a victory. That all changed Thursday night, but it was far from easy.

After trailing much of the game, the Trojans rallied in the fourth quarter and were dominant in the overtime of a 63-50 victory over Anaconda High School.

"It's a nice win for us. I know they were a little undermanned, but any win here is a good win," McLean said shortly after the game.

Whitehall would score the first points of the game on a Murphy free throw, but struggled to find an offensive rhythm in the first half and trailed 24-17 at the break.

McLean said the Copperheads did a good of disguising their man-to-man defense as a zone, and were really keying on Trojans standout Feight.

During the halftime break, McLean said he told Alexander that when he catches the ball on the wing to refuse his ball screens and to attack the rim. Alexander, who had six points in the first half, did exactly what the coaching staff asked and had a monster second half finishing with a game high 29 points including 16 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Feight was also able to come alive in the second half and finished with 27 points. He also had 16 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Anaconda was led by another huge game from senior all-state player Braxton Hill, who moved into third place on the Copperheads all-time scoring list with 24 points.

After the Trojans took a 48-45 lead with a little over a minute left in the game, Hill hit a 25-foot off balance three pointer over the outstretched arm of Smith to tie the game.

McLean said they wrote on the chalkboard prior to the game to make the touches for Hill hard, and said Smith did an excellent job defending him. McLean said he told the team good players make tough shots, but it's about how you react to them.

"Keep making him (Hill) shoot tough shots and we will play our percentages," McLean said.

Feight was unable to connect on a last second shot at the end of regulation and the tightly contested game would see another four minutes of play.

The overtime period belonged to the Trojans who outscored Anaconda 15-2 on their way to their eighth victory of the season.

McLean praised the condition of his team in the final period and said getting a win in a difficult place to play was big for the team.

"It was huge for us. We need to be road warriors down the stretch of the season and that will be good for us. It will make us tough in difficult environments," he said.

Whitehall (9-3, 3-3 District 5B) will once again be on the road this week with a Friday matchup at Big Timber, and a Saturday matchup at Three Forks The Trojans lost 50-47 in the first matchup against the Wolves, and fell 71-67 in overtime to the Herders in a game in December at Varsity Gym.

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 03/13/2024 17:04