Capital cruises past Wolfpack

The Wolfpack got its offense in gear, but the Bruins were running in overdrive.

The Glacier High School boys' basketball team doubled its scoring output from the previous night, but couldn't keep pace with Helena Capital on Saturday as the Bruins cruised to a 90-63 Western AA victory.

The Wolfpack struggled through a 51-31 loss against a bruising, methodical Helena Bengals squad on Friday. Capital gave Glacier the up-tempo contest it desired, but the Bruins shot 60 percent in the first half while breezing to a 52-23 lead.

Capital drained 63.5 percent of its shots on the night, including 9-for-15 from beyond the arc. The Bruins also were sharp at the free-throw line, going 15-for-20.

"They ran their offense very well," Glacier coach Mark Harkins said. "And when you shoot as well as they did tonight, things are going to roll well for you.

"They were playing very, very confident and they rebound so well. If they did miss, they got offensive boards to put back. When you play with that kind of confidence, it's tough to stop defensively."

Capital out-rebounded Glacier 30-20, including 13-5 on the offensive glass. Junior Matt Njos led the Bruins' startlingly-balanced attack with 20 points. Ben Ternes and Aaron Lynch added 14 apiece, followed by Matt Miller with 12. Tyler Erickson neared a double-double with 10 points and eight boards.

The Bruins scored at least 17 points in every quarter, showing no hangover from Friday night's 69-68 overtime loss at Flathead.

"I thought we showed a lot of maturity," Capital coach Guy Almquist said, "I was pretty happy with that. After the game yesterday, we told ourselves, 'We've got five minutes to feel bad for ourselves.'

"Then, after that, the coaching staff and players alike had to move on because this was an important game for us to stay up there in the top half of the conference.'"

Capital improved to 6-4 in Western AA play and 13-5 overall, while Glacier dropped to 0-10 in conference and 3-15 overall.

Glacier's offense heated up in the second half when the Wolfpack shot 60 percent (15-for-25), but it wasn't enough to offset a 9-for-25 (36 percent) opening half. Glacier briefly led in the first quarter, but trailed 20-11 by the end of the frame.

"They've got guys that just shoot the lights out," Glacier junior guard Ben Sansaver said. "I don't know what they shot - it seemed like 90 percent or something like that.

"It just seemed like they weren't missing. The team we played last night - they're more of a big team and they'll post you up, but this team can beat you either way."

Sansaver's stellar outing included six points, three assists, a rebound and a steal. He hit a pretty reverse layup early in the second quarter and snaked around Capital's full-court press 50 seconds later for another layup, despite being fouled.

Junior guard Ben Cutler matched his season average with 19 points to lead Glacier. Junior post Mike Rasmussen had nine points and five rebounds, while Josh Doty and Connor Fuller added seven points apiece.

"I thought we played a lot better offensively," Sansaver said. "We've definitely got to step it up defensively - allowing 90 points isn't very good - but I thought we played a lot better offensively, and we've just got to get it together on both sides of the court now."

Harkins said Glacier stuck with man defense so its players could learn to fight through screens and put a performance on film that they can study and improve from. And despite allowing Capital's season-high scoring total, the Wolfpack responded from Friday's disheartening performance the way Harkins had hoped.

"We focused on a lot of positives tonight in the locker room," Harkins said. "I thought our tempo was much better tonight. We wanted to play up-and-down, and it's easier to do that with Capital because they like to go up-and-down as well, as opposed to Helena.

"I thought we moved the ball around much better. Lots of guys contributed offensively, which was a focus tonight. We wanted to get more guys involved, and that, in the long run, will help out Shay (Smithwick-Hann) and Ben (Cutler) as far as opening them up if there's other guys that are stepping up."

Capital 20 32 21 17 - 90

Glacier 11 12 18 22 - 63

CAPITAL (13-5, 6-4) - Travis Pilon 2-3 3-4 8, Ben Ternes 4-9 4-6 14, Matt Njos 7-11 3-3 20, Casey Lamping 4-7 0-0 9, Matt Miller 5-7 0-1 12, Aaron Lynch 6-6 2-2 14, Kelan Farry 1-2 1-1 3, Josh Dirks 0-0 0-1 0, Tyler Erickson 4-7 2-2 10. Totals 33-52 15-20 90.

GLACIER (3-15, 0-10) - Josh Doty 3-7 1-3 7, Connor Fuller 3-4 0-0 7, George Werk 0-1 2-2 2, Shay Smithwick-Hann 0-9 3-4 3, Logan Quay 1-2 0-0 2, Kramer Wilson 0-0 0-1 0, Mike Rasmussen 4-6 1-2 9, Ben Cutler 6-11 4-5 19, Bryan Chery 2-3 0-0 4, Cody Grosswiler 2-3 0-0 4, Ben Sansaver 3-4 0-1 6. Totals 24-50 11-18 63.

3-point goals - Cap. 9-15 (Njos 3-4, Ternes 2-4, Miller 2-3, Pilon 1-1, Lamping 1-2, Farry 0-1), Gla. 4-13 (Cutler 3-6, Fuller 1-2, Doty 0-1, Werk 0-1, Smithwick-Hann 0-3). Rebounds - Cap. 30 (Erickson 8, Ternes 3, Miller 3, Pilon 2, Lamping 2, Lynch 2, Njos, Farry, Brian Bignell, team 7), Gla. 20 (Rasmussen 5, Quay 2, Werk, Smithwick-Hann, Wilson, Sansaver, Chery, team 8). Assists - Cap. 8 (Pilon 2, Lynch 2, Ternes, Njos, Miller, Erickson), Gla. 7 (Sansaver 3, Fuller, Werk, Smithwick-Hann, Rasmussen). Steals - Cap. 9 (Erickson 2, Bignell 2, Pilon, Njos, Miller, Farry, team), Gla. 4 (Fuller, Cutler, Sansaver, Chery). Turnovers - Cap. 15, Gla. 17. Total fouls - Cap. 20, Gla. 18. Fouled out - none.