Rams Struggle From The Field In Challenge Game Loss

The Class B Western Divisional Tournament came to a close Monday night with a challenge match between the Loyola Rams and their conference rival Anaconda Copperheads with Anaconda earning a dominate 70-33 win.

The Copperheads challenged the Rams Saturday night after Loyola lost to the Bigfork Vikings in the Class B Western Division Championship game. Both teams made their way back to the Ronan Activities Center where the tournament took place over the weekend.

Out of the gate it looked to be another dog fight between conference foes as the teams swapped stops at either end of the court with the Rams taking the first quarter 11-9. Loyola had the ball at the start of the second quarter and tried to force it into the paint to Joey McElroy, but the Copperheads Trent Mikolatos would not have it in his neighbor hood and blocked all of McElroy’s attempts. The Rams did not earn a bucket in the second quarter until 1:46 left in the half when Jack Lincoln earned a trip to the free throw line.

At the start of the third quarter Anaconda owned the scoreboard with a 32-15 lead over Loyola and once again the Rams woes from the field continued as they could not get the ball to drop through the hoop. It was not so much of a case of Anaconda playing strict defense, but more of the Rams not being able to get their high percentage shots to drop in the bucket. Regardless of where or who shot the ball, it would not slip through the cylinder from the field.

Anaconda went own to average 21 points in the final three quarters to streak their way to a win and punching their ticket to the 2018 Class B State Tournament March 9-11 at the Adams Center on the campus of the University of Montana.