Bravettes buckle under pressure

By CARL HENNELL

The Montana Standard

BUTTE -Flathead held a 16-point lead from the halfway point of the second quarter to the halfway point of the third quarter.

Then Bozeman's full-court pressure kicked in.

Bozeman's Kirsten Tilleman, a 6-1 sophomore, scored 10 of her 17 points in the second half and senior Amanda Murdoch scored eight of her 10 points in the second half as the Hawks' defense forced 18 second-half turnovers to rally into the Class AA state semifinals with a 53-46 win over Flathead at the Butte Civic Center on Thursday.

Murdoch had two steals as the Hawks only tallied six steals in Flathead's 23 total turnovers.

"Their pressure was everything it was made up to be," Flathead coach Dennis Latimer said. "We got up and they [Bozeman] went into panic mode and went for it.

"They put pressure on us every way they could, and it was more than we could handle."

The Bravettes have only one senior in two-time All-State selection Holli Hashley, who had 11 points and eight rebounds.

"Yeah we are young, but we prepared for their pressure and had a big lead," Latimer said.

The Bravettes seemed to handle the full-court pressure at first, extending a 32-20 halftime lead with a 6-2 run on fast-break buckets in the beginning of the third quarter. Then Bozeman' second-year head coach Brooke Svendsen made a simple adjustment.

"We planted a post back to stop those quick attacks," Svendsen said.

The ploy worked. Flathead made just two field goals in the game's final 13 minutes - and one of those was when Hashley picked up a loose ball for an easy bucket - and turned the ball over three times in the fourth quarter on charge calls.

"We could have gotten more of those in the first half and the beginning of the second half but we kept jumping," Svendsen said. "So I told them to keep their feet planted and take the charge. They did a good job with that."

Trailing 40-24 with 3:38 left in the third quarter, Bozeman had four different players score in an 8-0 run to cut its deficit in half. The Hawks finished the third quarter on a 15-2 run to head into the fourth quarter down by one possession, 42-39.

The run carried over into the fourth quarter, when the Hawks outscored the Bravettes 10-1 to open the final frame and capping a 25-3 run that finished with 2:10 left in the game, with the Hawks up 49-45.

Flathead's final six possessions ended with three turnovers with the ball dribbling out of bounds, two missed shots and one free throw.

Murdoch scored nine of her points in the decisive run, and Tilleman scored eight - while sophomores Amanda Manfredi, Kelsey Ham and Jeni Guertin each had one basket, along with junior Abbey Schmaltz.

"We came off a little rusty from the [10-day] break," Svendsen said. "They [Flathead] ran a good, penetrating offense in the first half that rattled us. They were getting easy baskets and we weren't shooting the ball very well.

"We needed to change things up so I went with a little younger lineup with Kelsey Ham in there because she's such a quick little guard on defense. She turned out to be a little spark for us and the rest of the players did little things well - which is what it's going to take."

The Hawks finished with a 34 percent shooting clip (20-for-58), while Flathead finished at 38 percent (15-for-39) after missing only nine second-half shots.

Tilleman led the Hawks with seven rebounds, but Flathead won the rebounding battle 35-28.

Sophomore guard Kendal Habel led the Bravettes, scoring 13 of her 15 points in the first half. She also had six rebounds.

"Kendal came in and did some nice things for us," Latimer said. "We're tickled with the way she's progressed."

Junior Chaeney Latimer and Meghan O'Connell each added eight points. Junior post Chelsea Vaudt led the Bravettes in rebounding with nine but had only two points.

Though the loss was stinging for the Bravettes, they're now faced with the task of picking themselves up off the mat and trying for a third-place trophy. They open the consolation bracket against three-time defending state champ Billings West today at 9 a.m.

"We're going through a brief mourning state right now, but we have to forget about it and move on," Latimer said. "We came here for a reason - we want to win some hardware."

The Daily Inter Lake contributed to this report

HAWKS 53, BRAVETTES 46

Flathead 10 16 10 4 - 46

Bozeman 10 10 19 14 - 53

Flathead (15-6)

Christina Zorn 0-2 0-0 0, Chaeney Latimer 2-6 3-3 8, Kendal Habel 4-7 6-9 15, Lindsay Ingram 1-3 0-0 2, Holli Hashley 4-9 3-4 11, Meghan O'Connell 3-8 2-4 8, Chelsea Vaudt 1-4 0-0 2, Annie Braseth 0-0 0-1 0, Leslie Quay 0-0 0-1 0. Totals 15-39 14-22 46.

Bozeman (18-3)

Leslie Saunders 1-5 0-0 2, Amanda Manfredi 0-4 0-0 0, Whitney Adams 0-1 3-4 3, Kirsten Tilleman 7-14 2-4 17, Kelsey Ham 2-6 0-0 5, Katie Peterson 0-0 0-0 0, Amanda Murdoch 4-9 1-5 10, April Huber 0-5 0-0 0, Abbey Schmaltz 3-8 2-4 8, Jeni Guertin 2-5 1-2 5. Totals 20-58 9-19 53.

3-point goals-Flathead 2-9 (Habel 1-2, Latimer 1-4), Bozeman 4-18 (Peterson 1-1, Murdoch 1-3, Tilleman 1-4, Ham 1-5). Rebounds-Flathead 35 (Vaudt 9, Hashley 8, Habel 6, Quay 5, O'Connell 3, four tied with 1), Bozeman 28 (Tilleman 7, Saunders 4, Manfredi 3, Murdoch 3, Huber 3, Schmaltz 3, Guertin 3, two tied with 1). Assists-Flathead 6 (Vaudt 2, four tied with 1), Bozeman 8 (Manfredi 2, Peterson 2, Schmaltz 2, two tied with 1). Steals-Flathead 5 (Habel 3, O'Connell 2), Bozeman 6 (Murdoch 2, four tied with 1). Blocks-Flathead 2 (Vaudt, Quay), Bozeman 3 (Tilleman 2, Guertin). Turnovers-Flathead 23, Bozeman 13. Total fouls-Flathead 18, Bozeman 20. Fouled out-O'Connell, Murdoch. Technicals-O'Connell.

Missoula Big Sky 57,

Billings West 55, OT

BUTTE (AP) - Julee Christianson scored 21 points, including 4-of-6 free throws in overtime, to help Missoula Big Sky edge Billings West 57-55 Thursday in the first round of the state Class AA girls basketball tournament.

Billings West, the three-time defending state champions, made just 9-of-25 free throws.

West (10-12) led 53-53 in overtime before Christianson made 4-of-6 free throws while West went 0-for-4 from the foul line and committed two turnovers.

West led 48-43 with 3:27 remaining in regulation, but Big Sky closed the quarter with a 7-2 run, including a three-point play by freshman Joslyn Tinkle. The Lady Bears tried for a last-second game-winner was off the mark with 1.1 seconds left in regulation and Big Sky couldn't get a shot off before the buzzer sounded, sending the game into overtime.

Tinkle finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds for Big Sky (15-6) despite spending much of the game on the bench in foul trouble. Elise Bisson added 12 points for the Eagles.

Tessa Cunneen led West with 14 points, making 4-of-5 shots from 3-point range. Kayla Hunt added 12 points and 10 rebounds and Alex Rupe finished with 10 points.

EAGLES 57, BEARS 55, OT

Billings West 6 19 16 9 5 - 55

Missoula Big Sky 14 13 12 11 7 - 57

BILLINGS WEST (10-12)

Tessa Cunneen 5-7 0-2 14, Alex Rupe 3-8 4-8 10, Caitlin Tocci 0-0 0-0 0, Sarah James 0-3 0-0 0, Erica Stokke 3-7 2-4 8, Callie Muri 1-3 0-2 2, Kayla Hunt 5-9 2-5 12, Elizabeth Gerstner 1-1 0-0 2, Cortney Zappe 2-4 1-4 7. Totals 21-42 9-25 55.

MISSOULA BIG SKY (15-6)

Ashley Montelius 0-4 2-3 2, Julee Christianson 7-18 2-3 2, Joslyn Tinkle 6-8 2-6 14, Samantha Lidstrom 0-2 2-2 2, Brittney Leibenguth 0-1 0-0 0, Elise Bisson 4-7 2-4 12, Lacey Phelan 2-6 0-0 4, Sarah Lustgraaf 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 19-46 16-28 57.

3-point goals-West 4-6 (Cunneen 4-5, Rupe 0-1), Big Sky 3-15 (Bisson 2-3, Christianson 1-7, Lidstrom 0-1, Montelius 0-4). Fouled out-Zappe, Leibenguth. Total fouls-West 23, Big Sky 19. Rebounds-West 29 (Hunt 10), Big Sky 34 (Lidstrom 10).