Braves come out on top over Wildcats
Hogan, Osweiler have monster games, but C-Falls matches them
COLUMBIA FALLS - Friday night's boys basketball game in the Columbia Falls High School gym between Class AA Flathead and the Class A Wildcats was a classic.
It had a great atmosphere. It had two great teams using full-court defenses. It had seven lead changes and five ties. And its outcome wasn't decided until the final half of the fourth quarter - a quarter in which the teams combined to score 48 points.
Tied 48-48 with five-and-a-half minutes to play, Flathead's senior post Geoff Hogan was fouled while putting back a missed free throw - he made the free throw - and then junior shooting guard Jake Thiesen hit back-to-back 3-pointers in giving the Braves a nine-point cushion that they rode for a 71-61 non-conference victory.
"Thiesen is key for us - that was huge, that's what killed them," Hogan said. "I mean he makes his presence known like he invented the 3-point shot."
Hogan scored a career-high 25 points and had seven rebounds, five assists and two blocks and sophomore post Brock Osweiler had a monster game as the Wildcats' fans chanted "Over-rated" in a thundering tone.
The 6-foot-8 Gonzaga recruit registered a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds, but was on his way to a triple-double and quadruple-double with steals in assists. He finished with seven assists and didn't have any in the fourth quarter. He finished with five steals and only had one in the second half. He also had two first-half blocked shots.
"I've noticed over the years there really is no better place to play, besides Kalispell, than Columbia Falls," Osweiler said. "They've got great fans up here. They really get into the game. They see that I'm going to Gonzaga and tried to get into my head, but I only fed off of it. It was a bad thing for them to do."
The two Flathead posts combined for 12 assists, 19 rebounds and 41 points.
"They were really sagging on the posts, but that opened up the back end for us," Hogan said. "Both of us did a good job of finding the open guy and then the open guy did a good job of knocking them down."
Sure Hogan and Osweiler had monster games, but Columbia Falls matched the Braves for most of the game.
Senior forward Karsten Peterson was two points off his career-high with 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds while junior guard Chase Grilley matched his career-high with 20 points, while tallying seven rebounds, two steals and two assists.
Essentially, the outcome of the game boiled down to turnovers.
The Wildcats won the first-quarter turnover margin and took a 15-12 lead into the second. Then the Braves used a 6-3 second-quarter turnover margin to take a 28-25 halftime lead.
The Wildcats opened the third by forcing Flathead into five turnovers in the first two-and-half minutes and rode a 10-0 run into the lead. But then the Wildcats committed three turnovers towards the end of the quarter and the Braves used an 8-0 run to take a 44-40 lead into the fourth. The Braves outscored the Wildcats, 27-21, in the fourth coupled with a 5-1 turnover margin and going 9-for-14 from the free-throw line - with most of the foul shots coming in the final two minutes.
"It was that one stretch at the end of the third and then the stretch at the end of the fourth - that's what cost us," Columbia Falls Coach Cary Finberg said. "We turned it over three out of four possessions and they came down and hit two threes and the three-point lead went to nine.
"We played very well for the most part, but three or four possessions in a row cost us. We played hard. We can't fault the kids. It just didn't go our way."
Thiesen and Luke Cutler added 10 points in the victory. Cutler went 5-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final minute-and-a-half. Thiesen's back-to-back treys came between two timeouts where the Wildcats switched in a 2-3 zone and packed the key.
"That was great," Flathead Coach Fred Febach said. "We'd been waiting the whole game for our perimeter game to open up. We kept telling the kids that it will be there, just be ready for when it does to catch and shoot. We ended up having our feet set, drained a couple that got us a cushion and were able to hit some free throws down the stretch."
Finberg explained: "We switched to a 2-3 on the out-of-bounds (before Flathead called a timeout) and we didn't find the guy. I don't know what happened. We just didn't guard him. Then we turn it over and they came down and we don't find the shooter again and it's the exact same kid."
The victory capped the season sweep for Flathead over the Wildcats. The Braves improved to 7-4 on the season and dropped Columbia Falls to 8-4.
Flathead 12 16 16 27 - 71
C. Falls 15 10 15 21 - 61
FLATHEAD (7-4) - Jake Thiesen 4-7 0-0 10, Michael Gallagher 1-3 0-0 2, Danny Salois 1-3 3-4 5, Shay Smithwick-Hann 0-2 0-0 0, Luke Cutler 2-9 5-7 10, Connor Cavigli 1-1 1- 3, Brad Huff 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Harris 0-0 0-0 0, Brock Osweiler 5-10 6-10 16, Geoff Hogan 12-19 1-2 25. Totals 26-54 16-25 71.
COLUMBIA FALLS (8-4) - Chase Fairbank 2-5 1-2 6, Jared Jimmerson 0-0 0-0 0, Kyle Jangula 1-3 2-2 4, Dustin Gibson 0-3 1-2 1, Zane Ridings 0-0 0-0 0, Karsten Peterson 8-15 4-7 21, Bobby Pearce 0-1 0-0 0, Mackey Nolan 0-1 0-0 0, Michael Taylor 4-10 1-2 9, Chase Grilley 8-14 2-4 20, Grant Getts 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-53 11-19 61.
3-point goals - Flt. 3-15 (Thiesen 2-4, Cutler 1-5, Smithwick-Hann 0-2, Salois 0-2, Gallagher 0-1, Osweiler 0-1), CF 4-13 (Grilley 2-6, Fairbank 1-1, Peterson 1-4, Nolan 0-1). Rebounds - Flt. 32 (Osweiler 12, Hogan 7, team 4, Thiesen 3, Cutler 3, Salois 2), CF 30 (Peterson 8, Grilley 7, team 6, Jangula 4, Gibson 3, Fairbank, Taylor). Assists - Flt. 15 (Osweiler 7, Hogan 5, Salois 2, Cutler), CF 6 (Grilley 2, Jangula 2, Fairbank, Gibson). Steals - Flt. 8 (Osweiler 5, Thiesen, Cutler, Cavigli), CF 8 (Grilley 2, Fairbank 2, Getts, Jangula, Peterson, Taylor). Blocks - Flt. 4 (Osweiler 2, Hogan 2), CF 0. Turnovers - Flt. 17, CF 18. Total fouls - Flt. 19, CF 22. Fouled out - Jangula, Grilley.