Braves beat Sentinel in OT

Go 9-for-10 from FT line in OT to seal Western AA victory

Overtime, sweet overtime.

The Flathead High School boys basketball team completed a spectacular weekend Saturday afternoon in its final home game of the season with a 68-62 overtime victory over Missoula Sentinel.

Coupled with Friday night's two-point victory at Missoula Big Sky, the victory forged a third-place tie with the Spartans in the Western AA. It was the fourth straight conference win for the Braves and fifth in six games, including the overtime loss to Big Sky. It also avenged the 60-47 loss Sentinel pinned on the Braves on Jan. 4.

Sophomore Brock Osweiler capped a 57-point weekend with a 27-point, 16-rebound, three-steal performance. He scored eight points in overtime. Senior Geoff Hogan, who missed Friday night's game with the flu, battled his ailment and registered 13 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots. And senior Luke Cutler added 14 points, including a 3-pointer that gave the Braves their first multiple-possession lead in the fourth and then four free throws in overtime.

"It's been a tough weekend," Osweiler said. "We played a nail-biter (Friday) night that came down to a last-second shot. Then we had to come back and we had a shoot around in the morning. So we're running on fumes right now. But when you have a crowd like we had and the game goes into overtime, you know the game has to be yours."

Trailing 40-39 entering the fourth quarter, the Braves used a 12-3 run that ended with 1 minute, 25 seconds left in regulation and a 55-49 lead. Osweiler scored the final four points in the run, but freshman Shay Smithwick-Hann and Cutler hit back-to-back 3-pointers to get the run rolling. It was an exciting stretch for the large crowd that had been watching the state's second-best perimeter-shooting team make only two of its first 13 3-pointers.

But trailing 55-49 with 1:13 left in regulation, the Spartans used a 6-0 run - where the Braves missed two front ends of bonus trips to the free-throw line - to force overtime. Junior forward Andy Garland's 3-pointer with 11.6 seconds left tied it and, after two timeouts and a couple of play calls, Cutler's buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the top of the arc hit the front of the rim.

"When Garland hit the 3-pointer to tie it, I liked what I saw out of my kids - they didn't panic," Flathead coach Fred Febach said.

There were three lead changes and one tie in the fourth quarter and five ties and five lead changes total.

"It was a really, really good game," Sentinel coach Craig Matosich said. "That's the way all games should be. But everybody will walk away from this one with a good memory because of the experience."

Just 16 seconds into overtime, Osweiler converted his own putback while getting fouled and made the free throw. But Sentinel's Brant Beaudry tied it with a 3-pointer with 1:33 left in overtime.

Osweiler got another putback, off a Smithwick-Hann missed 3-pointer, while being fouled (and made the free throw) just nine seconds after Beaudry tied it to give the Braves their final lead. The Spartans got a fast-break basket out of Beaudry on their ensuing possession to cut the game to one, 61-60. But then the Braves went 7-for-8 from the free-throw line the rest of the way while Sentinel went 0-for-6.

"That's how you win big games down the stretch - it's who can make their free throws and in this one it was us," Osweiler said.

The Spartans were heart broken.

"There's no finger pointing, but it's hard all the way around - life on the road is hard," Matosich said. "We could have gotten to the paint anytime we wanted on the dribble and it was good and physical in there all the way around. It's hard for a kid to keep going in there and in there and then we went 0-for-6 from the free-throw line in overtime."

The Braves dominated in rebounding, 41-31, to make up for eight first-quarter turnovers and 21 total. They also made 41.6 percent of their shots (20-for-48), while making only four of 17 3-pointers, while Sentinel made only 33.3 percent (19-for-57).

But the Spartans' poor shooting can be chalked up to the accomplishment of Flathead's man-to-man defense.

"We had to play a ton of man-to-man because they've got such great shooters," Febach said. "If you give them an eyelash, they shoot it up and it goes through the basket most of the time."

Matosich wasn't surprised by the amount of man-to-man D he saw the Braves playing.

"They played a zone against us in Missoula and we found some spots that we attacked their zone pretty easily, so they knew they had to go man with our group," he said.

Febach explained: "For us, we just tried to play good solid defense because kids like (Mark) Henkel and Garland and Beaudry, they are tough matchups for anybody. Certainly they are going to score some, but we just had to make sure they worked for everything and didn't get any second looks. Sometimes they did, but for the most part the kids did a super job. We made them work their possessions and made enough of our own shots and then we canned some free throws at the end. That was huge."

Flathead junior point guard Jake Thiesen had six points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Two of his rebounds and one of his free throws came in overtime. Smithwick-Hann added five points with four rebounds and dished out three of his four assists in the fourth quarter. Junior Austin Roehl contributed two points and two rebounds before fouling out, and was instrumental on defense.

"I'm really proud of the kids," Febach said. "Brock had a monster game, shooting-wise and rebounding-wise. But, hey, we had a lot of people contributing positive minutes. Thiesen, for example, was saddled with four fouls the whole fourth quarter and overtime without fouling out. Cutler nailed free throws down the stretch. Shay Smithwick-Hann hits a big 3-pointer late. There's so many kids we can mention. It was great team effort.

"(Sentinel is) one of the better teams in the state. So if you can beat them, you better dog-gone-well enjoy it. It doesn't happen that often."

The Braves finish their regular season next week with games at second-place Helena Capital and first-place Butte.

Sentinel 14 10 16 15 7 - 62

Flathead 5 20 12 16 13 - 68

MISSOULA SENTINEL (13-5, 6-4) - Taylor King 0-7 2-2 2, Sean Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Logan Jacobson 0-0 0-0 0, Mark Henkel 4-16 11-12 20, Andy Schuelke 0-1 0-0 0, Tyler Smith 1-4 3-4 5, Brant Beaudry 7-14 1-4 16, Andy Garland 7-15 3-3 18, Connor Griffith 0-0 1-6 1, Dan Thisselle 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-57 21-31 62.

FLATHEAD (12-6, 6-4) - Jake Thiesen 1-6 3-5 6, Michael Gallagher 0-0 1-2 1, Danny Salois 0-0 0-0 0, Shay Smithwick-Hann 2-5 0-0 5, Austin Roehl 1-1 0-0 2, Luke Cutler 4-13 4-4 14, Connor Cavigli 0-3 0-0 0, Brad Huff 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Harris 0-1 0-0 0, Brock Osweiler 8-11 11-14 27, Geoff Hogan 4-8 5-7 13. Totals 20-48 24-32 68.

3-point goals - MS 3-16 (Garland 1-3, Beaudry 1-3, Henkel 1-6, Schuelke 0-1, King 0-3), Flt. 4-17 (Cutler 2-9, Smithwick-Hann 1-3, Thiesen 1-5). Rebounds - MS 31 (Garland 11, Griffith 5, Beaudry 5, team 5, Henkel 3, two with 1), Flt. 41 (Osweiler 16, Hogan 8, Thiesen 5, Smithwick-Hann 4, Huff 3, Roehl 2, Cutler 2, team). Assists - MS 5 (Garland 2, three with 1), Flt. 10 (Smithwick-Hann 4, Thiesen 2, four with 1). Steals - MS 9 (Henkel 2, Garland 2, five with 1), Flt. 7 (Osweiler 3, Thiesen 2, two with 1). Blocks - MS 3 (Garland, Beaudry, Griffith), Flt. 3 (Hogan 2, Osweiler). Turnovers - MS 13, Flt. 21. Total fouls - MS 28, Flt. 23. Fouled out - Smith, Roehl, Hogan, Osweiler.