Big Sky beats Braves in overtime

Flathead drops to 2-4 in Western AA boys basketball

This one hurt bad.

The Flathead High School boys basketball team rallied from an eight-point, fourth-quarter deficit to force Missoula Big Sky into overtime Friday night in the FHS gym. But the Eagles got control of a loose ball with 5 seconds left in overtime and made a wide-open bunny from under the basket to beat the Braves, 65-63.

Tied 63-63, Big Sky senior McHale Anderson ended up with his own offensive rebound after missing a running jumper from just outside the key. But he ended up with it outside the 3-point line after Flathead's Jake Thiesen made an all-out save in the corner to keep the ball in play. With the rest of the Braves either in transition or following after the long rebound, Anderson passed it to a wide-open Jordan Featherman under the basket and the 6-foot-5 senior made the points look easier than they were with about 5.2 seconds ticking away.

With no timeouts, Flathead's Danny Salois took the ball upcourt and got off a shot at the buzzer from about 25 feet out. But it went long and to the left.

It was the first home loss for the Braves this year. More importantly, it dropped them to 2-4 in Western AA.

"This one hurt," Flathead coach Fred Febach said. "Anything at home like that and especially in conference - it's going to hurt. It's disappointing but we are going to work hard to get back. We aren't discouraged."

Featherman's basket was Big Sky's only field goal in overtime. But he scored six of his eight points in the extended frame as the Eagles went 6-for-8 from the free-throw line in overtime.

Anderson - a 6-4 senior - had 15 points, five rebounds and five steals while junior Mike Devlin had 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals to help lead Big Sky.

Flathead's Brock Osweiler finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds and two blocked shots. He fouled out with 2:12 left in overtime.

Geoff Hogan, who tied the game at 63 in the post off an assist by Salois with 33 seconds left in overtime, finished with 13 points, four rebounds and two assists.

Osweiler and Hogan combined to scored 12 points in the fourth quarter and Thiesen gave the Braves their first lead, 53-52, since the second quarter with a 3-pointer at 3:54 left in the fourth.

The Braves took a 57-54 lead when Luke Cutler assisted Connor Cavigli under the basket with amazing-vision, near-halfcourt pass at 1:52 left in the fourth. But after the teams exchanged some turnovers, Anderson hit a 3-pointer for Big Sky to tie the game with 29 seconds left.

Osweiler's shot from just outside the key at the fourth-quarter buzzer didn't sink and the game went to OT.

Coming into the game, the Eagles averaged four 3-pointers made and 15 3-point attempts per game. They were last in Class AA in percentage and second-worst in total 3-pointers. But the Eagles shot an astounding 27 3-pointers and made eight of them.

"That surprised me," Febach said. "I knew they were struggling shooting a little bit, but they drained some, especially in the second half. Certainly we can't give them open looks, but they played a nice basketball game."

Devlin and Anderson each had three treys.

"It's been a long time coming," Big Sky coach Josh Laslovich said. ""We haven't shot the ball very well this year but we play great defense and we let them get the reward at the offensive end. We don't always get them. But you know what? We made some huge ones in this one."

The Eagles played tough, physical man-to-man defense for most of the game. But Osweiler had seven rebounds and six points off of putbacks in the game's first four minutes to shock Big Sky's physicality.

"We talked about getting a body on him but I don't think our guys understood right away how active he is and that we couldn't just stand straight up and down against him," Laslovich said. "But we ended up doing a better job of getting our butts into him. We played legal, but we didn't allow him to get tight to the basket … But we were in trouble in the beginning."

The Eagles ended up losing the rebounding battle only 34-33 after Flathead established a 14-6 advantage in the first quarter.

Then Big Sky outscored the Braves 19-9 in the second quarter and 16-13 in the third quarter before Flathead's 17-9 fourth-quarter run.

The Eagles still didn't shoot the ball all that well (36.6 percent), but they put up 60 shots.

The Braves made 23 of 49 field goals (46.9 percent). Thiesen and Salois each had two treys and each had eight points.

But the Braves committed 24 turnovers. Unlike early in the season when most of those were coming in the up-tempo game, the majority of these came in the halfcourt.

"We've had great efforts on defense all season long and the guys understand, especially on the road, that's what they've got to do," Laslovich said. "We wanted to mix it up a little bit on defense, but they've got some shooters. They're shooting 42 or 43 percent from the 3-point line and it seemed like every time we tried to go zone, they knocked one down.

"I'll tell you what, our kids battled. It's tough to play up here. I don't remember the last time Big Sky won in Kalispell, but it hasn't been since I've been around."

The Eagles improved to 2-2 in the Western AA and 7-4 overall.

"They play a good physical defense and get after it," Febach said. "We couldn't find any rhythm offensively. Then we found some things out and got some looks. But now the challenge is out there for us to get back out on the practice floor on Monday and get ready because now we've got Butte coming."

Western AA's unbeaten Bulldogs come to Kalispell on Feb. 3.

Big Sky 13 19 16 9 8 - 65

Flathead 18 9 13 17 6 - 63

MISSOULA BIG SKY (7-4, 2-2) - Steve Tuttle 1-7 2-2 4, Mike Devlin 5-10 0-2 13, Justin Montelius 1-2 0-0 2, Jordan Taylor 0-2 0-0 0, McHale Anderson 4-14 4-4 15, Blayne Larson 3-6 0-0 8, Mitch Johnson 2-6 1-5 5, B.J. O'Neil 3-5 0-0 6, Jordan Featherman 2-2 4-4 8, Beau Donaldson 1-1 2-5 4. Totals 22-60 13-22 65.

FLATHEAD (7-5, 2-4) - Jake Thiesen 3-6 0-0 8, Michael Gallagher 1-4 0-0 3, Danny Salois 3-6 0-0 8, Shay Smithwick-Hann 0-0 0-0 0, Luke Cutler 3-7 0-0 7, Connor Cavagli 2-3 0-0 4, Brad Huff 2-2 0-1 4, Josh Harris 0-1 0-0 0, Brock Osweiler 5-14 6-8 16, Geoff Hogan 4-9 5-6 13. Totals 23-49 11-15 63.

3-point goals - MBS 8-27 (Devlin 3-5, Anderson 3-10, Larson 2-5, Montelius 0-1, Taylor 0-1, Johnson 0-1, Tuttle 0-4), FHS 6-14 (Salois 2-3, Thiesen 2-5, Cutler 1-2, Gallagher 1-3, Cavigli 0-1). Rebounds - MBS 33 (Devlin 7, Anderson 5, team 5, Tuttle 3, Montelius 3, O'Neil 3, Featherman 3, four tied with 1), FHS 34 (Osweiler 14, Cutler 5, Hogan 4, Smithwick-Hann 3, team 3, Harris 2, three tied with 1). Assists - MBS 10 (Tuttle 4, Devlin 3, three tied with 1), FHS 8 (Salois 2, Cutler 2, Hogan 2, two tied with 1). Steals - MBS 13 (Anderson 5, Tuttle 2, Devlin 2, Taylor 2, two tied with 1), FHS 5 (Salois 2, three tied with 1). Blocks - MBS 1 (Donaldson), FHS 2 (Osweiler 2). Turnovers - MBS 18, FHS 24. Total fouls - MBS 19, FHS 18. Fouled out - Osweiler.