Defense key in Falls victory as late rally comes up short for Littlefork-Big Falls
Coaches lose sleep over it. Fans pack the house for it. Players are as revved up as ever for it.
Welcome to another chapter of the Broncos-Vikings rivalry.
International Falls got the best of Littlefork-Big Falls on Monday in a 70-61 victory in front of a big crowd at Falls High School.
“Best game of the year,” said Broncos junior Shawn Filipiak, who led the Falls with a team-high 14 points and 11 rebounds.
The Broncos (3-2) were coming off their worst performance of the season in a woeful loss Friday to another Borderland team and had dropped two straight.
“It was a big win after playing that horrible game Friday against Fort Frances,” Filipiak said. “Finally made our shots.”
And played some defense.
The Broncos held the previously undefeated Vikings (3-1) to only 20 points in the first half, and made the L-BF offense look uncomfortable all night.
“We didn’t look to create and we didn’t attack the bucket. I think we were looking for too many outside shots,” said L-BF head coach Jeff Maish, who fell to 1-4 against the Broncos in his fourth season.
Filipiak, the Broncos’ leading scorer, finally got some help in the scoring department, as well. Ethan Johns had 13 points and Matt Paulbeck finished with 12 points, including a team-high eight in the second half. Trevar Carlson was in double figures with 10, while Nick Bujold and Tim Myles added nine apiece.
“More kids stepped up,” Filipiak said. “We finally had more kids scoring. All around, more kids contributed.”
Garrett Larson’s double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds led the Vikings. Jesse Steele added 17 points and Zach Stencel scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Larson rarely had an easy look around the basket.
“That was our goal to make him work for everything. Make him earn it,” Broncos head coach Derek Dowty said.
Dowty, who only played L-BF once during his high school career at FHS — winning 60-47 in the 2000-01 season — admitted there were some pregame nerves.
“Each year it does not matter if you’re good or bad, it’s always close in the end,” he said, noting last year’s lopsided 82-43 win for the Broncos was an aberration.
“It’s such a big rivalry and you know the kids will be fired up before the game,” Dowty added.
The biggest lead for the Broncos was 41-25 with just under 12 minutes to play in the second half. They led 48-34 around the 7-minute mark before the Vikings made a move.
A quick 10-2 run, that took only two minutes, cut the lead to 50-44. That’s when free-throw shooting down the stretch held off L-BF.
Over the final five minutes, the Falls finished 10 of 15 from the stripe, while L-BF was 6 of 11 and had two players foul out. Forty-one fouls were whistled in all — 18 on FHS and 23 on L-BF.
The Vikings did manage to cut the lead to two at 63-61 when Tyler Fort’s high arcing 3-pointer banked in with 50 seconds to play, but Carlson hit four free throws to extend the lead to 66-61. Filipiak added another free throw and Myles scored a meaningless basket with time running out to get the final score. L-BF didn’t score in three possessions after Fort’s bank shot.
“Second half, what I like about our team is we didn’t quit, no matter how many points we were down,” Maish said.
Next up for the Broncos is a home holiday tournament with three other teams — Roseau, Fort Frances and St. Johns, Manitoba. The Broncos open the tournament Tuesday night against St. Johns.
The Vikings take a break and don’t return to action until 2010, traveling to Cook on Jan. 5.
Game notes
• The final score should’ve been 70-62, but the official scorer’s table missed a point for Littlefork-Big Falls in the second half. Stencel made two free throws with 4:35 remaining but was only credited with one. L-BF never led after that point and only cut the deficit to two at 63-61 with 50 seconds remaining.
• The starting five for L-BF in the rivalry game were Larson, Kyle Burmeister, Stencel, Tyler Lehman and Steele. Adam Potter, Bujold, Carlson, Filipiak and Paulbeck started for FHS.
• After finishing only 3 of 7 from the free-throw line in the first half, the Broncos went 14 of 23 in the second half. L-BF finished 16 of 26 from the line, including 6 of 8 in the first half.
