Braves' big comeback falls short
Flathead loses to Great Falls in semifinals, 44-37
The Daily Inter Lake
BUTTE - Coming off the emotional high of Thursday's
upset win over Billings West, Flathead was ripe for a
letdown.
Sure enough, the Braves came out flatter than a
week-old soda in the first half of Friday's Class AA
semifinal against Great Falls.
Flathead missed its first 10 shots from the floor and
trailed as much as 18-4 in the first half. The Braves
fought back valiantly, taking a brief three-point lead
in the third quarter, but ran out of gas in the final
six minutes and lost 44-37.
"Coming back from 12 [points] down [at halftime] takes
a lot out of you," said Flathead senior Jeremy
DeHerrera, who scored a team-high 13 points. "Our legs
got really tired at the end."
Great Falls junior Bobby Thomas, who stands 6-foot-6,
opened the game with a 3-pointer and scored eight of
his game-high 21 points in the opening quarter for the
Bison, who led 13-2 after eight minutes. Flathead,
meanwhile, got its only points on a pair of Mack
Andrews free throws and committed seven turnovers in
the quarter.
"Upsetting the No. 1 team [Billings West] was great,
but we came out kind of cocky," DeHerrera said. "And
they [Great Falls] took it to us."
The Braves' poor shooting continued into the second
stanza, with their first two shots missing badly. Then
Geoff Hogan broke the spell with a bank shot to cut
the deficit to 13-4 with 6:25 remaining in the first
half.
They would manage only three first-half field goals,
shooting 3 of 21 (14 percent) from the field. Combine
that with 12 turnovers and the Braves went into the
locker room down 22-10.
"Holy smokes, it looked like there was a lid on the
basket in the first half," Flathead coach Fred Febach
said. "But I told the kids at halftime to keep
shooting."
The third quarter promised to bring more of the same,
with Flathead's first two shots going awry. But then
Thursday's hero, Beau Watkins, gave the Braves their
first trey of the contest, which cut the deficit to
22-13.
After several baskets by DeHerrera and freshman Brock
Osweiler (12 points, game-high 13 rebounds), the
Braves cut Great Falls' lead to six points. Andrews
and DeHerrera then hit 3-pointers to pull Flathead to
within 30-28, and the game went into the fourth
quarter with the Bison up 32-29.
"They [Flathead] could have mailed it in, but they
hung in there," Great Falls coach Bob Howard said.
"They just started hitting their shots, and we got
impatient on offense."
DeHerrera opened the fourth with a pair of free
throws, then stole the ball and went coast-to-coast
for the layup, giving Flathead its first lead at
33-32. Hogan added a basket on the Braves' next trip
down the floor, giving his team a three-point lead
with 6:15 left in the game, and sending the Flathead
faithful who made the trip into a frenzy.
The lead was short-lived, however, as Bobby Howard
connected on a 3-point play to tie the game at 35. The
Bison finished the game on a 9-2 run, with the
obviously exhausted Braves shooting air-balls on their
final two possessions.
"I'm proud of my kids for showing the heart they did
to come back," Febach said. "But give Great Falls the
credit - they played every possession hard."
The Bison go for their first state championship since
1995 when they take on Bozeman High tonight at 8 p.m.
Flathead, meanwhile, plays Butte at 10:30 a.m. in the
consolation bracket, with a chance to gain a
third-place trophy with a pair of wins.
"We have to keep our heads up," DeHerrera said. "The
morale is low now, but it will be up tomorrow. I
guarantee it."
BISON 44, BRAVES 37
Great Falls 13 9 10 12 - 44
Flathead 2 8 19 8 - 37
GREAT FALLS (18-5)
Jerry Schmitz 0-1 2-2 2, Eric Choan 2-4 6-9 10, Bobby
Howard 8-19 4-6 21, Shaun Tatarka 2-10 1-2 5, Kody
Swartz 0-3 1-2 1, Kevin McKittrick 1-5 0-0 3, Kevin
Corwin 0-0 2-2 2 .Totals 13-42 16-23 44.
FLATHEAD (15-8)
Beau Watkins 1-6 0-0 3, Mack Andrews 1-3 2-2 5, Jeremy
Deherrera 4-12 3-4 13, Brock Osweiler 5-10 2-6 12,
Geoff Hogan 2-6 0-0 4, Burk Schaible 0-1 0-0 0, Jason
Russell 0-2 0-0 0, Richard Boggs 0-1 0-0 0. Totals
13-40 7-13 37
3-point goals-Great Falls 2-10 (McKittrick 1-4, Howard
1-3, Tatarka 0-3), Flathead 4-17 (Deherrera 2-6,
Watkins 1-6, Andrews 1-2, Osweiler 0-1, Hogan 0-1).
Total fouls-Great Falls 14, Flathead 19.
Rebounds-Great Falls 23 (Swartz 8), Flathead 36
(Osweiler 13).