Has ImageBravette bench grounds Eagles

The thought didn't linger long, but it certainly crossed his mind.

With three of his starters out of the game due to early foul trouble and the Bravettes trailing by nine points, Flathead High School girls basketball coach Kim Elliott called on his bench players, thinking "Let's survive this."

But Flathead's reserves had bigger things in mind. They scored 25 points Friday night as the Bravettes rallied to a 59-52 Western AA victory over Missoula Big Sky.

Big Sky led 23-14 with 4:46 left in the second quarter when Flathead went on a 13-2 tear to claim a 27-25 halftime advantage.

"The lift was kids who come off the bench," Elliott said. "That was our string of kids coming off the bench that made that run.

"That's so important for us because we understand that every one of these kids can contribute at any time and everyone did. They did that over at Great Falls in a very tight game and they did it here where we were in big foul trouble early."

Senior guard Chaeney Latimer came off the bench to tie senior forward Lindsay Ingram with a team-high 14 points. It was Latimer's 3-pointer with 50 seconds left in the second quarter that put Flathead on top heading into the break.

"The big thing with Chaeney is she was hurt, she had the flu," Elliott said. "She missed three or four weeks, so she's just getting back into it. Her mindset is just getting back into it, and for her to come off and to do this - I am so pleased for her."

Elliott said his players never resorted to survival mode after a rough opening 12 minutes.

"That was me," Elliott said. "I will never say that to a team. And that was the mindset when you get people in foul trouble, but it was quickly taken away. That's one of the things that runs through your head."

The Bravettes scored 17 points in the second frame to cap a first half in which they made 50 percent (11 of 22) of their field-goal attempts. Flathead's hot offense ignited its sweltering defense, which forced 28 turnovers and held Big Sky to 18 points in the game's middle quarters.

"If you make baskets, then you can change things up on the floor on defense," Elliott said. "When you don't make baskets it's really tough to be changing things up. It's more of a half-court change up."

Big Sky's 6-foot-1 sophomore post Joslyn Tinkle led all players with 18 points and 13 boards as the Eagles out-rebounded Flathead, 37-32. Tinkle was the only Eagle to score in double figures.

The Eagles converted 69.2 percent (18 of 26) of their foul shots, but fired just 34 percent from the field. Big Sky coach Marti Leibenguth said the Eagles' offensive inconsistency boiled down to a simple lack of execution.

"If you can't put the ball in the hole and you have (28) turnovers, it's tough to get a shot up," Leibenguth said.

Leibenguth said that although Flathead's up-tempo attack often leads to game-breaking scoring bursts, those runs are not necessarily inevitable.

"(The Bravettes) played a great game, and we just didn't come out and play for four quarters like we need to," Leibenguth said. "I give all the credit in the world to Flathead. They did a nice job tonight."

Flathead sophomore post Emilee Hashley came off the bench to score eight points while grabbing six rebounds and a team-high five steals. Fellow sophomore Leslie Quay led the team with seven boards in a reserve role.

"The difference in the game is that all these girls believe that they can contribute at any time, and they know that at any given time it will be them," Elliott said. "They buy into it, they've bought into it all year."

While it was Flathead that found itself in early foul trouble, three Eagles fouled out in the second half as Big Sky finished with 31 fouls. The Bravettes earned 41 free-throw attempts, but made only 18 of them (43.9 percent).

"We're going to keep practicing free throws," Elliott said. "A couple of these kids shot over 200 free throws in three days and they were making them."

But free-throw shooting was about the only thing that didn't go right for the Bravettes, who improved to 7-2 in Western AA play and 13-4 overall. Big Sky falls to 5-4 in conference play and 9-7 overall.

"It's like money in the bank," Elliott said. "We've drawn interest off of other games from what we've been able to do. Today we had to pull money out of the bank, and to be able to expend the energy on stuff we've been working on (feels good). We've been able to capitalize on what we've done in practice."

The Bravettes visit Missoula Sentinel at 4:30 p.m. today.

Big Sky 15 10 8 19 - 52

Flathead 10 17 15 17 - 59

BIG SKY (9-7, 5-4) - Amber Williams 1 2-2 4, Joslyn Tinkle 7 4-6 18, Samantha Lidstrom 2 2-2 7, Brittney Leibenguth 1 1-2 4, Lacey Phelan 0 0-2 0, Sarah Lustgraff 4 1-2 9, Melissa Jenkins 1 2-4 4, Kelsey Schwenk 0 6-6 6. Totals 16 18-26 52.

FLATHEAD (13-4, 7-2) - Christina Zorn 0-1 0-5 0, Chaeney Latimer 3-6 6-7 14, Kendalyn Habel 1-7 5-7 7, Lindsay Ingram 5-6 3-4 14, Ally Krautbauer 0-0 0-2 0, Emilee Hashley 4-7 0-2 8, Meghan O'Connell 1-3 1-4 3, Sara Newgard 4-10 0-0 8, Ashley Younkin 1-3 0-0 2, Chelsea Vaudt 0-1 2-6 2, Annie Braseth 0-1 0-0 0, Leslie Quay 0-1 1-4 1. Totals 19-46 18-41 59.

3-point goals - BS 2 (Lidstrom 1, Leibenguth 1), FHS 3-6 (Zorn 0-1, Latimer 2-3, Ingram 1-1, Hashley 0-1). Rebounds - BS 37, FHS 32 (Quay 7, Hashley 6, Newgard 5, Habel 3, O'Connell 3, Vaudt 3, Latimer 2, Ingram 1, Kaylyn Heaton 1, team 1). Assists - BS NA, FHS 11 (O'Connell 2, Newgard 2, Younkin 2, Habel 1, Ingram 1, Hashley 1, Braseth 1, Quay 1). Steals - BS 9, FHS 18 (Hashley 5, Newgard 4, Habel 3, Younkin 2, Latimer 1, O'Connell 1, Braseth 1, Quay 1). Blocks - BS 2, FHS 3 (Newgard 1, Vaudt 1, Quay 1). Turnovers - BS 28, FHS 20. Total fouls - BS 31, FHS 22. Fouled out - BS 3 (Leibenguth, Jenkins, Schwenk), FHS 0.