No. 2 Bison roll over Braves
The Daily Inter Lake
Holy Cow! The Great Falls High School boys basketball team is good.
The Bison proved Saturday afternoon in the Flathead High School gym why they are the second-ranked squad in the state.
The Bison's three-headed monster of seniors Bobby Howard, Shaun Tatarka and Kevin McKittrick combined to score 65 points - with each scoring 20 points or more - and outscored the entire Flathead team in a 79-61 non-conference victory.
Trailing 21-20 entering the second quarter, the defending state champions used an 11-0 run to start the second and take command. The Bison outscored the Braves in each of the final three quarters and improved to 14-2 on the season.
"They just flat took it to us," Flathead coach Fred Febach said.
The Braves didn't play bad. They were impatient on offense at times. But their defense wasn't awful either. Great Falls is just that good.
Tatarka, a senior point guard; Howard, a 6-foot-7 forward; and McKittrick, a 6-1 wing, created most of their own shots. None of them posted double-doubles. But Tatarka, with eight assists, and Howard, with nine rebounds, came close. Tatarka also had four steals.
The most-telling stat of the game was the shooting percentages. Great Falls made 57 percent of its shots (29-for-51) compared to the Braves' 36-percent shooting clip (23-for-64).
"They absolutely drained any open shots that they had," Febach said. "We tried real hard and did the best we could. We were in the game and then early in the third quarter they jumped us and got to about seven or eight points and we really couldn't make a run at them from there. We had some chances, but failed to score on several possessions and they just built on their lead."
Ahead by seven points at the half, 40-33, the Bison open the third quarter on a 9-1 run to go up by 15. The Braves got their deficit down to 11 entering the fourth, but then the Bison went on a 9-0 run to go up by 20.
"I don't know if we really have strategies," Great Falls coach Bob Howard said. "Offensively, we aren't very patient. But we've got some guys that can shoot. So we give them the green light and go from there.
"Defensively, we just try to put as much pressure on the ball as we can without getting burned. We haven't really worked on pressuring the ball, but we are working on it. We worked on it this week and we actually had a little success with it in this game. It helped out quite a bit. The key to this win was that we got a few turnovers and converted them into layups and we were able to contain them inside. They had an off-night shooting from the outside. If they hit some of those shots in the first half, it's anybody's game."
Each team had 11 turnovers. The Braves ruled the rebounds, 47-30.
Luke Cutler scored 21 points and Brock Osweiler had 20 to pace the Braves. Osweiler registered a double-double with 11 rebounds. Geoff Hogan made just two of 12 shots, but had 10 rebounds. Starter Austin Roehl, a 6-1 junior, didn't shoot at all, but brought down six rebounds.
"I'm not happy about the loss, but we can get a lot out of a game like this - especially against that quality of a team," Febach said. "They showed us some of our weaknesses.
"We need to be more patient offensively. We settled for some shots when we didn't need to. We got away from our halfcourt offense and guys started settling for the jump shot. We missed those and that deficit ballooned. The boys were trying so hard that they felt they had to take the jump shot and score. But we have to learn to play one possession at a time when we are behind by that much."
The Braves fell to 9-6 overall.
"We played hard, no doubt about it, and the kids feel like they can play better - no doubt about it," Febach said. It's a learning thing for us. We've got to go to Libby on Tuesday and then get back into our conference schedule. So our season is still ahead of us. Certainly we are disappointed, but we can't let ourselves get discouraged."
Great Falls 20 20 18 21 - 79
Flathead 21 12 14 14 - 61
GREAT FALLS (14-2) - Kevin McKittrick 9-11 0-0 22, Bobby Howard 7-16 7-11 23, Tyler Moody 1-1 0-0 2, Tyler Fayden 0-0 0-0 0, Shaun Tatarka 6-14 7-11 20, Zach Smith 1-3 0-0 2, Andrew Hafliger 3-3 0-0 6, Brennan Freeman 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 29-51 14-22 79.
FLATHEAD (9-6) - Jake Thiesen 0-5 0-0 0, Michael Gallagher 0-1 0-0 0, Danny Salois 3-7 0-0 7, Shay Smithwick-Hann 0-1 0-0 0, Austin Roehl 0-0 0-0 0, Luke Cutler 8-14 2-2 21, Connor Cavigli 2-3 0-0 4, Brad Huff 1-1 1-2 3, Josh Harris 0-0 1-2 1, Brock Osweiler 7-19 6-9 20, Geoff Hogan 2-12 1-3 5, Sam Tedrow 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-64 11-18 61.
3-point goals - GF 7-18 (McKittrick 4-6, Howard 2-7, Tatarka 1-5), Flt. 4-20 (Cutler 3-8, Salois 1-3, Smithwick-Hann 0-1, Osweiler 0-1, Hogan 0-2, Thiesen 0-5). Rebounds - GF 30 (Howard 9, Semmens 4, Tatarka 4, Smith 3, McKittrick 3, team 3, Moody 2, Hafliger 2), Flt. 47 (Osweiler 11, Hogan 10, Roehl 6, Thiesen 5, Cavigli 4, Huff 4, Salois 3, team 2, Cutler). Assists - GF 11 (Tatarka 8, three with 1), Flt. 4 (Hogan 3, Thiesen). Steals - GF 6 (Tatarka 4, two tied with 1), Flt. 9 (Salois 2, Hogan 2, Cutler 2, three tied with one). Blocks - GF 3 (McKittrick 2, Semmens), Flt. 1 (Tedrow). Turnovers - GF 11, Flt. 11. Total fouls - GF 16, Flt. 19. Fouled out - Semmens, Hogan.