Braves find their groove

Osweiler, Cutler, Hogan combine for 52 points

The Daily Inter Lake

You may have the skills to be a good athlete, but that's only half the battle.

The Flathead High School boys basketball team proved it had the other half - the mentality - Saturday night in an exciting 82-75 Western AA victory over Helena High in the FHS gym.

Sophomore Brock Osweiler registered a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds, senior Luke Cutler had 18 points and three steals, junior Geoff Hogan had 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists and junior point guard Jake Thiesen had nine points and three assists in helping lead the Braves over the .500 mark on the season.

By avenging Dec. 19's 59-50 loss in Helena, the Braves are now 5-4 overall with a 2-3 Western AA record.

Entering a 13-day break from conference games, Flathead showed its somewhat disappointed fans what they are really all about by controlling Helena in an almost-hard-to-keep-up game. The teams combined for 114 shots, making 53 percent of them.

"This is definitely a turnaround game for us," Hogan said. "We got the numbers on offense and we finally played the type of game that everyone can watch out for the rest of the season."

Tied 18-18 entering the second quarter, Hogan - a 6-foot-6 junior - had a huge hand in a 15-3 run that put the Braves in the driver's seat for good. The lead accordianed from 11 points to five points through the middle quarters.

In the fourth, the Braves led by as many as 16 points with 2 minutes, 30 second remaining. But they made just two of 10 free throws before Cutler hit two with 52.2 seconds remaining. Those were the only points scored by Flathead in the final 2 1/2 minutes as the Bengals ended the game on an 11-2 run. The Braves committed seven of their 21 turnovers in the final frame while looking to stall, but made seven of eight field goals from inside the 3-point arc.

"If you can score 65 to 70 points in Class AA you're going to win most of your games," Helena Coach Willie Schlepp said. "For us to outgun a team with the type of players they have - that's a strength that they have, they can get into a shootout - but we can't. They shot the heck out of the ball and most of that was from open looks - they have that good of players."

All told, Flathead made 61 percent (31-for-51) of its shots. It made four of 11 3-point attempts. Two treys came on back-to-back possessions - about three seconds apart - to open the second half after Helena scored six points in the final 1.6 seconds of the first half to get within five points. Thiesen had two treys, including the first one of the second half, while Danny Salois and Tyler Hawkins added one apiece.

As well as shooting great, the Braves finished with advantages in rebounds (35-31), assists (17-6) and turnovers (21-20).

But it wasn't necessarily what the Braves did physically, but what they did mentally in preparing for the rest of the season and using this game as their first step.

"The season hasn't been going the way we've wanted," Hogan said. "After (the loss to) Hellgate, we realized we needed to change, so we called a team meeting. Everybody got to write up on the board and say what they wanted to say and what they thought we needed to do to turn this season around.

"We came up with that we needed to get more rebounds - especially offensive rebounds for those second looks."

Of Flathead's 35 rebounds, 13 came on offense. Osweiler had three offensive boards and converted them into six points. He could have had more than 20 points, but missed his last six free throws and went 3-for-11 from the foul line.

"The other challenge that we set out for was for our guards to drive and get pieces of the paint before dishing it out or shooting it if they've got open looks," Hogan said. "They did a great job with that - guys like Luke Cutler, Danny (Salois) and Jake (Thiesen)."

Salois added eight points in the victory as nine Braves hit the scoring column and Flathead Coach Fred Febach echoed Hogan's sentiments.

"The improvement comes from a mental standpoint as a team," Febach said. "That tough loss on Thursday (to Hellgate) told us there is a certain style we need to play to be successful. In order to do that we need to rebound and once we do that we need to get out and go. If we do that we can be a good team. We did a great job of pushing the ball and a couple of times we burned them. That's the way we like to play."

Helena's 6-7 junior Grant Fink had a monster of a game. He finished with 22 points, including a 3-pointer, and 15 rebounds with two steals. Senior point guard Derek Herrin added 15 points while 6-3 junior Reil Cornelius and 6-5 junior Steven Foster each had 13 points.

The Bengals shot well, too. They made 46 percent of their shots while putting the ball up 12 more times than Flathead.

"I'm sure it was exciting for the fans," Schlepp said. "It was a great game. It was an up-and-down game. Both teams are good and both have good players. But we didn't do a good job defensively pressuring the ball. They got too many open looks just catching and shooting. They even got some baskets in the transition game when our big guys got beat down the floor."

The Bengals fell to 1-2 in conference (with their only win against the Braves) and 3-5 overall.

The Braves are back in action Thursday hosting Whitefish. Then they travel to Columbia Falls on Friday. They get back into Western AA play on Jan. 26 when they host Missoula Big Sky.

Helena 18 19 17 21 - 75

Flathead 18 24 22 18 - 82

HELENA (3-5, 1-2) - Grant Fink 9-15 3-7 22, Derek Herrin 6-11 3-4 15, Brian Evans 0-8 2-2 2, Brian Watson 1-1 0-0 2, Reil Cornelius 4-7 4-6 13, Tom Donnelly 1-3 0-0 2, Steven Foster 6-9 1-3 13, Luke Stubblefield 2-9 2-5 6. Totals 29-63 15-27 75.

FLATHEAD (5-4, 2-3) - Jake Thiesen 3-4 1-3 9, Michael Gallagher 1-3 0-0 2, Danny Salois 3-4 1-4 8, Shay Smithwick-Hann 1-4 2-2 4, Luke Cutler 6-7 6-8 18, Connor Cavigli 1-1 0-0 2, Tyler Hawkins 1-2 2-2 5, Brad Huff 0-0 0-0 0, Brock Osweiler 8-16 3-11 19, Geoff Hogan 7-10 1-1 15. Totals 31-51 16-31 83.

3-point goals - Hel. 2-14 (Fink 1-3, Cornelius 1-3, Herrin 0-2, Evans 0-3, Stubblefield 0-3), Flt. 4-11 (Thiesen 2-3, Salois 1-2, Hawkins 1-2, Cutler 0-1, Gallagher 0-1, Smithwick-Hann 0-2). Rebounds - Hel. 31 (Fink 14, Foster 4, Stubblefield 4, Evans 2, Cornelius 2, Donnelly 2, team 2, Watson), Flt. 35 (Osweiler 11, Hogan 8, team 5, Smithwick-Hann 3, Cutler 3, Huff 3, Gallagher, Cavigli). Assists - Hel. 6 (Donnelly 3, Stubblefield 2, Evans), Flt. 17 (Hogan 5, Osweiler 3, Thiesen 3, Salois 2, four tied with 1). Steals - Hel. 13 (Stubblefield 5, Fink 2, Evans 2, Foster 2, two tied with 1), Flt. 10 (Cutler 3, Hogan 2, Smithwick-Hann 2, three tied with 1). Blocks - Hel. 0, Flt. 3 (Osweiler 2, Huff). Turnovers - Hel. 20, Flt. 19. Total fouls - Hel. 25, Flt. 21. Fouled out - Thiesen, Donnelly.