Bravettes beat up Hellgate

11 players score in Western AA rout

The Daily Inter Lake

The Missoula Hellgate girls basketball team was no match for Flathead High School Thursday night.

Lindsay Ingram and Emilee Hashley scored 14 points apiece and Kendalyn Habel added 12 as 11 Bravettes hit the scoring column in a 77-45 Western AA rout of the Knights in the FHS gym.

Ahead just 13-9 after an 11-0 run with 1 minute, 29 seconds left in the first quarter, the Bravettes used a 14-0 run in the second quarter to take command for good.

They dominated in every facet of the game.

Senior post Leslie Quay had nine rebounds in the first half and finished with 12 - eight came on offense - to lead Flathead to a 36-25 rebounding advantage. She also tallied four steals to go with six points.

"She (Quay) sets the tone for us," Flathead coach Kim Elliott said. "She's been doing it in practices and she set the tone for us in this game."

The pesky Bravette defense forced Hellgate into 34 turnovers and gathered 19 steals. Junior point guard Meghan O'Connell had five steals to go with four assists and six points.

For the first time this season, Flathead committed less than 15 turnovers.

"In our up-tempo game, it doesn't mean that you have to throw it to the first person you see," Elliott said. "That's what we were doing. The guards, the posts, all of them were throwing it to the first person they saw before. Now, we are working on not pushing it up the floor when it's not there. We are coming down in control and we had three girls in this game doing it and spreading it out (O'Connell, Christina Zorn and Ashley Younkin)."

While Hashley, the sophomore post, was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free-throw line before fouling out, the only knock on the Bravettes was their first-half shooting percentage.

The Bravettes' halftime lead of 36-16 could have been bigger had they not made only 28 percent (6-for-21) of their second-quarter shots. But the law of averages evened out with the Bravettes making 16 of 31 second-half shots. They finished with a 42 percent (28-for-66) shooting clip.

"Our assistant coaches noticed some things with a couple players' shooting in the first half," Elliott said. "One was thinking too much before she shot and the other just needed to slow down. They fixed those and the girls got their confidence back."

The Bravettes made almost as many field goals (28) as Hellgate attempted (30).

"We just couldn't get the ball up the court effectively to get into a halfcourt offense - there were too many brain-dead passes," Hellgate Coach Craig Olson said.

The Knights didn't shoot bad. They made 14 of their 30 shots. But they made just as many free throws (14 of 20).

While the Bravettes had 11 girls score, Olson had just eight girls available to play - and two of them got into foul trouble early.

"I've got eight players and I had three players get into foul trouble in the first four minutes of the game," Olson said. "The game was over there. What more can I say?

"Defensively, we stunk it up. We didn't move our feet and that's why we got four fouls on our post player in the first half and three on our point guard in the first quarter."

Flathead got into bonus free-throw shooting with 1:29 left in the first quarter. It ended up sinking 17 of 26 foul shots, including nine of 17 in the first half.

Kirsten Vaculik, Hellgate's 6-foot-1 junior center, had 14 points and five rebounds before fouling out.

With the victory, Flathead moved to 3-1 in Western AA play and 6-3 overall.

Annie Braseth scored a season-high eight points. Ashley Krautbauer also had a season high of five points and two assists.

"I'm happy all-around," Elliott said. "I'm happy with a couple JV kids (Krautbauer and Younkin) that came in and did well. They allowed us to rest some kids for Helena. We needed to do that. Those two are giving us some breathing room when we need it. I think we left too much out there on the floor when we beat Sentinel."

The Bravettes play at Helena High on Saturday. They beat the Bengals, 57-39, after having huge leads throughout the first half on Dec. 19.

"I really like where we are at," Elliott said. "They are really coming together."

Hellgate 9 7 15 13 - 45

Flathead 19 17 22 19 - 77

MISSOULA HELLGATE (3-6, 0-3) - Ashley Iverson 0-2 2-2 2, Paige Hall 1-2 5-6 7, Chelsey Maxson 2-3 0-0 5, Rachel Gearheart 2-4 3-4 9, Catelyn Lower 3-7 0-2 6, Katie Gannon 3-7 0-2 6, Kaitlyn Horner 0-0 0-1 0, Kirsten Vaculik 5-5 4-5 14. Totals 14-30 14-20 45.

FLATHEAD (6-3, 3-1) - Christina Zorn 0-5 2-2 2, Kendalyn Habel 5-12 1-2 12, Lindsay Ingram 5-12 4-4 14, Emilee Hashley 5-5 4-4 14, Meghan O'Connell 2-6 1-2 6, Sara Newgard 2-5 0-1 4, Ashley Younkin 0-2 0-0 0, Chelsea Vaudt 2-6 0-5 4, Annie Braseth 2-5 3-4 8, Leslie Quay 2-4 2-2 6, Kaylyn Heaton 1-1 0-0 2, Ally Krautbauer 2-3 0-0 5. Totals 28-66 17-26 77.

3-point goals - MH 3-5 (Lower 2-2, Maxson 1-2, Iverson 0-1), FHS 4-16 (Braseth 1-2, Krautbauer 1-2, O'Connell 1-3, Habel 1-3, Ingram 0-2, Zorn 0-4). Rebounds - MH 25 (Iverson 7, Vaculik 5, team 4, Lower 3, Hall 2, Gearheart 2, Gannon 2), FHS 36 (Quay 12, Habel 6, Zorn 4, Hashley 4, Vaudt 4, Ingram 2, four tied with 1). Assists - MH 8 (Gearheart 3, Iverson 2, three tied with 1), FHS 11 (O'Connell 4, Krautbauer 2, five tied with 1). Steals - MH 4 (Hall 2, two tied with 1), FHS 19 (O'Connell 5, Quay 4, Habel 3, Ingram 2, five tied with 1). Blocks - MH 0, FHS 1 (Vaudt). Turnovers - MH 34, FHS 14. Total fouls - MH 19, FHS 19. Fouled out - Vaculik, Hashley. Technicals - MH 1 (Coach Craig Olson).