Whitehall wins ninth straight

The Whitehall High School boy's basketball team continues to roll.

Led by the sharp shooting of sophomore Max Feight and a strong defensive performance in the second half, the Trojans won their ninth game in a row Tuesday night against Big Timber.

Feight had a game high 30 points and after trailing by one at half time, Whitehall would allow just 17 second half points in the 67-49 victory.

With the win, Whitehall moved to 9-1 on the season and is a perfect 5-0 in 5B League play.

The win came one day after the Trojans moved from number six to number one in 406mtsports.com Class B Rankings. This week the Trojans will have two key home games Thursday against Anaconda and Friday against rival Boulder.

In action last week, Whitehall knocked off number two ranked and previously undefeated Townsend 56-42 Friday, and defeated third ranked Missoula Loyola 80-68 Saturday.

Despite the recent success, head coach Zach McLean knows his team can improve.

"We still have plenty of room to get better and we know that," McLean said following the Missoula Loyola game. "We have to stay humble and hungry."

One night after the huge league win against Townsend, Whitehall fell behind 7-0 early against the Rams.

"We have to come out and get off to better starts," he said. "We have to be more efficient on offense and solidify our angles and help side defense."

The Trojans would outscore Loyola 22-8 the rest of the first quarter, and took a seven-point lead going into the second.

McLean said he thinks his team got caught up in the tempo Loyola wanted to play.

"They want to play fast and we shot some quick early possession shots," he said. "Fortunately we hit some of those shots."

Whitehall would outscore the Rams by two in the second to take a 35-26 halftime lead. The Trojans would get the edge in the final two quarters, outscoring Loyola by one in the third, and two in the fourth.

Whitehall had four players in double figures, with senior Braden Larsen leading the way with 19 points. Feight had 18, senior Andrew Simon had 15, and Wyatt Alexander finished with 14.

McLean said it was absolutely huge having that kind of scoring production.

Sophomore Cade Briggs added five, senior Colton Noyes had four, and junior Braden Smith finished with three points.

McLean said he was really pleased with how the guys on the bench came in and gave the team a huge spark, but said the Trojans really need to learn how to play with fouls.

On Friday, Whitehall outscored Townsend in the each of the first three quarters to give themselves a 45-30 lead going into the fourth.

Feight had a huge night for Whitehall with a game high 20 points. Larsen finished with 14, Alexander had 10, Simon chipped in eight and Colton Noyes had four points.

In the January 17 game against Big Timber, Simon had 15, Larsen added 14, Ryan Murphy finished with four, and Colton Noyes and Alexander each had two points.

Larsen and Feight are the two top scorers in the 5B League. In stats that do not include the Loyola or Big Timber games, Larsen is the top scorer at 17.3 points per game. Feight is averaging 15.9 a game.