Braves double up Bulldogs

Flathead shoots hot; Whitefish, not so hot

WHITEFISH - It will probably never happen again.

The Whitefish High School boys basketball team made just 18 percent of its field goals Friday night and Flathead High School was the beneficiary.

Not only did the Braves benefit from the Bulldogs' tough luck, but the Class AA team made nine 3-pointers for the second straight night and made 60 percent (25 of 42) of their field goals en route to a 62-30 victory.

Sophomore guard Danny Salois hit five 3-pointers and scored a career-high 20 points and 6-foot-8 classmate Brock Osweiler recorded another double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, along with leading the team with four assists, to help the Braves improve to 2-1 on the season.

"Our plan on offense is always going to be inside-out," Salois said. "Obviously, it has been working real well. We've hit a lot of threes lately. But it's the big guys inside, Brock and Geoff (Hogan) - we've got three big guys with Brad Huff and they are all good players. They are kicking it out to us. They're not being selfish players at all.

"We're taking pressure off of Brock and the rest of them, but they're taking a lot of pressure off of us at the same time."

Class A Whitefish fell to 0-5, but came out firing on all cylinders with its full-court press and took two quick leads. But the Bulldogs missed their next eight shots and made only one of 22 shots the rest of the way in the first half while Flathead expanded a 12-11 lead with 6 minutes, 47 seconds left in the second quarter with an 18-0 run.

Junior guard Jake Thiesen and Salois each made two 3-pointers in the run, plus Salois turned one of his treys into a four-point play because he was fouled while making a three and converted the free throw. Osweiler converted a three-point play in the run and the Braves went into halftime with a 32-14 lead they never looked back from.

"That was key for us," Flathead coach Fred Febach said. "Thiesen heated up. Danny (Salois) hit a couple and the next thing you know our lead just expanded. Then we played with a lot more confidence and a lot more control."

Thiesen finished with three 3-pointers to give him seven in two nights. Huff, the senior post who played in place of the injured Hogan, grabbed eight rebounds. And senior guard Luke Cutler tallied seven points with three rebounds.

All told, the Braves had eight kids in the scoring column.

"That's a good ball club even without Hogan," Whitefish coach Julio Delgado said. "We were able to control Osweiler and he didn't really hurt us, but he is a presence inside and ended up getting his points off putbacks in the fourth quarter. But it was their guards that hurt us. That surprised me. But they made a believer out of me."

Osweiler scored six of his 13 points in the fourth quarter and got four of his rebounds in the fourth quarter. Six of his 10 boards came on offense.

The Braves struggled early on offense and finished with 18 turnovers compared to Whitefish's 12.

"We are still struggling with our man offense," Febach said. "We are having trouble getting into some things at times. We need to be a little bit more patient with it. We were losing our spacing out there a little bit. But overall, because we can shoot the ball a little bit, we can make up for some of those mistakes."

The Braves not only rode the strength of their outside shooting, but their defense. It wasn't a ball-hawking defense, but a defense that took the Bulldogs out of rhythm.

"Their guard play was the key to their success," Delgado said. "They extended our offense and didn't let us get into it. When they went to the press, we handled it. They just took us out of our offense. We couldn't get into it and took some low-percentage shots. Then they started rolling and they took it from us.

"It was disappointing. We had open looks. We even ended up taking more shots than them and kind of kept up with them in rebounds for awhile."

Sophomore guard Colt Idol again led the Bulldogs. He scored seven of his 15 points in the third quarter, but made just four of 15 field goals. He was 6-for-7 from the free-throw line. Three other Bulldogs scored four points apiece: Luke Fennelly, Dane Sjoden and David FauntLeRoy.

The Bulldogs made more free throws (10 of 13) than field goals (nine of 48).

The Braves ended up out-rebounding the Bulldogs, 33-25.

"You've got to give Whitefish some credit," Febach said. "They just didn't have some shots go for them. Then after awhile it snowballed. I felt bad for them because they were working for shots. But then we did a good job of cleaning the glass as well.

"Anytime you come up to Whitefish and play well against the legend Julio Delgado, it's worth the trip. He's a great coach and his kids are going to get better and better."

Whitefish is back in action Friday when it travels to play Northwestern A favorite Libby.

Flathead travels to play Western AA foe Helena High on Tuesday. Hogan said he hopes to be back for the game.

Flathead 10 22 18 12 - 62

Whitefish 6 8 9 7 - 30

FLATHEAD (2-1) - Jake Thiesen 3-6 0-0 9, Michael Gallagher 0-0 0-0 0, Danny Salois 7-11 1-1 20, Shay Smithwick-Hann 2-3 0-0 5, Austin Roehl 1-2 0-0 2, Luke Cutler 3-6 1-1 7, Colton Hoffenbacker 1-1 0-1 2, Tyler Hawkins 0-0 0-0 0, Brad Huff 2-4 0-0 4, Josh Harris 0-0 0-0 0, Brock Osweiler 6-9 1-2 13. Totals 25-42 3-5 62.

WHITEFISH (0-5) - Kenny Overcast 0-2 0-0 0, Aaron Tkachyk 0-5 0-0 0, Shawn Watterud 0-0 0-0 0, Luke Fennelly 1-3 2-3 4, Brad Nielsen 0-3 0-0 0, Byron Whitcomb 1-5 0-0 3, Marc Hotzfield 0-1 0-0 0, Colt Idol 4-15 6-7 15, Jamie Clogg 0-5 0-1 0, Jake Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Dane Sjoden 2-2 0-0 4, David FauntLeRoy 1-7 2-2 4. Totals 9-48 10-13 30.

3-point goals - Flt. 9-19 (Salois 5-9, Thiesen 3-6, Smithwick-Hann 1-2), Wht. 2-14 (Whitcomb 1-2, Idol 1-3). Rebounds - Flt. 33 (Osweiler 10, Huff 8, Smithwick-Hann 3, Cutler 3, Thiesen 2, Salois 2, Hawkins 2, Harris 2), Wht. 25 (Clogg 5, Idol 4, team 4, FauntLeRoy 3, Whitcomb 2, Sjoden 2). Assists - Flt. 13 (Osweiler 4, Huff 2), Wht. 4 (Clogg 2). Steals - Flt. 4 (four tied with 1), Wht. 7 (Fennelly 2, Idol 2). Blocks - Flt. 4 (Salois, Smithwick-Hann, Hawkins, Osweiler), Wht. 1 (Clogg). Turnovers - Flt. 18, Wht. 12. Total fouls - Flt. 15, Wht. 12. Fouled out - none.