CMR hands Bravettes first loss at home
Flathead makes just 31 percent of its shots
The Daily Inter Lake
There are a lot of positives that can be taken out of the Flathead High School girls basketball team's loss on Saturday.
But first, the bad news.
Great Falls C.M. Russell senior guard Bobbie Lee scored 23 points while senior forward Kelsey Hopkins and junior post Mary Anderson added 14 and 10 points, respectively, to help lead the Rustlers to a 73-53 non-conference victory over the Bravettes in the FHS gym.
After jumping out to a 6-0 lead, the Bravettes lost control of the game and CMR closed the opening quarter on a 23-5 run. The Rustlers continued gaining momentum in the second quarter by starting it with a 12-4 run.
"I knew we were in trouble when we missed three layups in the first 30 seconds," FHS coach Kim Elliott said. "It allowed a mental mind shift. That's just a frustration of basketball. That's just the game. I'm going to tell the girls to just keep shooting - because that's what we do."
With 3 minutes, 19 seconds left in the first half, the Rustlers held a 20-point lead and never looked back.
CMR made 9 of 12 shots (75 percent) in the opening quarter, including three 3-pointers. The Bravettes made just four of 16 first-quarter shots (25 percent) and finished the game with a 31 percent shooting clip (19-for-62).
"The key was us making baskets and them not," second-year CMR coach Chad Olson said. Olson led the Rustlers to a 17-3 regular-season record last season and returned three starters.
While CMR junior point guard Becca Frank handled Flathead's full-court press by herself most of the time, junior guard Maghan Yurek had five assists in the first quarter and Anderson had six rebounds in the second quarter. All of this, and Hopkins - CMR's NCAA D-I prospect - sat most of the first half in foul trouble.
"We've got shooters, we've got drivers, we've got tall players, we've got it all when they play right and that's what they did," Olson said. "(Frank) works hard and sometimes she can get a little out of control but she kept control. (Yurek) is one of the players in a rotation and we're trying to find out what lineup works the best. But when she's on fire, she sees the floor real well. It's fun when things work."
The 6-foot-3 Anderson posted a double-double with 10 rebounds.
Not only did CMR shoot well (25-for-46), it handled the ball on offense well. The Rustlers had just two turnovers in the first 14 minutes of play and finished with 11 while Flathead committed 21 turnovers.
On top of the shooting and turnovers, Flathead's physical style of play forced 27 fouls compared to CMR's 16 fouls. Those resulted in CMR going 20-for-36 from the free-throw line.
"I'm not going to get frustrated with this - we shot 62 shots," Elliott said. "If we make 40 percent of our shots that's 74 points - and that's our game right there. The ball just didn't go into the basket."
The Bravettes went into the half doubled up on the scoreboard, 42-21. But they won the rebounding battle, 43-34, and ended up outscoring the Rustlers, 32-31, in the second half.
Kendalyn Habel finished with 11 points and six rebounds in the loss. Emilee Hashley had 11 points and four rebounds. Meghan O'Connell had nine points, four steals and four rebounds before fouling out. Annie Braseth had six points, four rebounds, three steals and two assists. She was one of three FHS players who didn't commit a foul - and she started.
All told, 10 Bravettes hit the scoring column.
"(Olson) thanked us for giving his team confidence going into conference play because we played so hard and so scrappy - we won the second half," Elliott said.
While Eastern AA CMR improved to 4-3 on the season, Flathead dropped to 4-4.
The Bravettes host Missoula Hellgate on Thursday.
CMR 23 19 17 14 - 73
Flathead 11 10 16 16 - 53
C.M. RUSSELL (4-3) - Kelsey Hopkins 6-12 2-2 14, Jill Zeren 2-2 2-5 6, Jordan Foster 3-6 0-1 8, Morgan Oswood 0-1 2-2 2, Bobbie Lee 8-11 6-8 23, Jolyn Sweeney 0-1 0-0 0, Mary Anderson 3-6 4-9 10, Becca Frank 1-3 4-9 6, Maghan Yurek 0-2 0-0 0, Amanda Barringer 2-2 0-0 4, Sarah DeGooyer 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-46 20-36 73.
FLATHEAD (4-4) - Christina Zorn 1-6 1-2 4, Kendalyn Habel 3-16 4-6 11, Lindsay Ingram 1-3 0-0 2, Emilee Hashley 3-6 4-4 11, Meghan O'Connell 4-11 1-2 9, Sara Newgard 2-5 0-0 4, Ashley Younkin 1-1 0-0 2, Chelsea Vaudt 1-1 0-2 2, Annie Braseth 1-5 2-3 6, Leslie Quay 0-3 0-0 0, Kaylyn Heaton 0-0 0-0 0, Kali Radel 0-2 0-0 0, Ally Krautbauer 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 19-62 12-19 53.
3-point goals - CMR 3-7 (Foster 2-4, Lee 1-2), FHS 3-19 (Hashley 1-1, Zorn 1-3, Habel 1-6). Rebounds - CMR 34 (Anderson 10, Lee 5, team 5, Hopkins 4, Zeren 3, Frank 3, DeGooyer 3, Foster), FHS 43 (Habel 6, team 6, Newgard 5, Quay 5, Braseth 4, O'Connell 4, Zorn 3, Vaudt 3, Ingram 2, Krautbauer). Assists - CMR 16 (Yurek 5, Frank 4, Foster 3, Anderson 2, two tied with 2), FHS 5 (Braseth 2, three tied with 1). Steals - CMR 8 (Hopkins 2, Foster 2, Lee 2, Anderson 2), FHS 10 (O'Connell 4, Braseth 3, three tied with 1). Blocks - CMR 0, FHS 2 (Zorn, O'Connell). Turnovers - CMR 11, FHS 21. Total fouls - CMR 16, FHS 27. Fouled out - none.