Bravettes rally, romp by CMR

Elliott: Now we're athletes playing basketball

With Saturday's 74-59 romp over Great Falls C.M. Russell, the Bravettes earned their practice jerseys back.

After two subpar performances, Flathead High School girls' basketball coach Kim Elliott took away the Bravettes' practice jerseys and made them wear Future Bravette shirts. But the awesome performance in the FHS gym against one of the best teams in Montana got them back on track.

"I haven't told them this yet, but they've earned their practice jerseys back," Elliott said. "We didn't play well against Great Falls High (before the break). We came back and didn't have a good practice. We filmed the practice without the kids knowing. Then the next day we showed the girls the practice film and the first two minutes of the Great Falls game and asked them what they saw. They saw that they weren't playing. Then I asked them for their practice jerseys. I told them they haven't earned the right to wear a Bravette practice jersey and were given a Future Bravette shirt. I told them they wouldn't earn their Bravette practice jerseys back until we all play as team."

It worked.

Senior guard Kendalyn Habel registered a double-double with 22 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and four steals, and three other Bravettes hit double digits in the scoring column. All told, eight Bravettes scored points and nine got at least two rebounds as the team improved to 4-2.

The Bravettes trailed by as many as seven points in the first and second quarters before the teams traded two ties and five lead changes in the second and third quarters. Then the Bravettes used an 18-2 run from the third quarter into the fourth to take a 57-44 lead and never looked back.

"We were turning the ball over and getting beat in the full-court game early on," Habel said. "So we decided to stay in half-court man-to-man defense because we had a good feel for the half court and were able to protect the basket better. I liked it a lot - it's definitely our personality."

That ferocious man-to-man D forced CMR into 12 third-quarter turnovers and 29 overall.

Habel scored 20 of her points in the second half, going 13-for-14 from the free-throw line.

"This was a big deal," Habel said. "They (the Lady Rustlers) are ranked pretty high in the state. We are ranked third in the West, so this goes to say that things will be changing."

All told, the Bravettes went 31-for-42 (74 percent) from the free-throw line.

"It was probably a very fun game to watch with two teams that like to play very aggressive and out of control at times," CMR coach Chad Olson said. "We just got ourselves out of position way too many times on defense - giving up 42 free throws. You can't win a lot of games doing that."

Senior guard Shaina Evans came off the bench to score a career-high 14 points while grabbing five rebounds in the victory. Senior guards Ally Krautbauer and Kali Radel each added 10 points and Ashlea Vaudt netted nine. Krautbauer also registered four steals and three assists.

As impressive as scoring 74 points was, the defense was even better.

"That is what I love more than anything: We started playing defense," Elliott said. "It was time for us to deliver our identity and our personality. It was time to come out. We learned we can play very hard man-to-man defense and we found out that we have to get back quicker on defense.

"(Once we got into the halfcourt D), we jammed their cutters. They run an awful lot of UCLA stuff. They've got all the option off of that. They are so solid. But we learned to fight through screens and to deny stuff. We found our defense and then our offense came with confidence. We knew that we had it (confidence), but we had other kids come off the bench. … Shaina Evans had an unbelievable game.

"We played better basketball instead of just being better athletes who go running up and down the court. Now we are athletes playing basketball."

CMR senior guard Maghan Yurek scored eight of her 20 points in the fourth quarter. Six-foot-two senior post Mary Anderson played sparingly and had seven points with eight rebounds. Senior point guard Becca Frank had 12 points and six steals. The Lady Rustlers made just one of 19 3-pointers and dropped to 4-2 on the season.

The Bravettes are back in action Tuesday at Missoula Sentinel in a big early-season Western AA showdown.

CM Russell 18 16 8 17 - 59

Flathead 11 19 17 27 - 74

CM RUSSELL (4-2) - Lindsey Brendgord 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan Foster 1-7 0-0 2, Morgen Oswood 0-3 2-2 2, Jolyn Sweeney 1-6 4-4 6, Mary Anderson 3-7 1-1 7, Kate Striepe 3-6 2-5 8, Becca Frank 6-14 0-0 12, Maghan Yurek 8-17 3-4 20, Jayme Hill 0-1 0-0 0, Amanda Barringer 1-2 0-0 2, Natalie Beard 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-63 12-16 59.

FLATHEAD (4-2) - Shaina Evans 5-7 6-6 14, Kali Radel 4-6 2-2 10, Kendalyn Habel 4-9 13- 14 22, Ally Krautbauer 3-8 4-7 10, Meghan O'Connell 0-3 1-3 1, Ashley Younkin 0-2 0-0 0, Ashley Brown 2-3 0-0 4, Ashlea Vaudt 1-6 7-8 9, Kaylyn Heaton 2-9 0-2 4. Totals 21-53 31-42 74.

3-point goals - CMR 1-19 (Yurek 1-7), Flt. 1-5 (Habel 1-3). Rebounds - CMR 36 (Anderson 8, Foster 7, Striepe 5, Yurek 5, Sweeney 3, team 3, Brendgord 2, three with 1), Flt. 38 (Habel 11, Evans 5, Heaton 5, Vaudt 5, team 3, five tied with 2). Assists - CMR 10 (Foster 4, Barringer 2, Frank 2, two with 1), Flt. 9 (Habel 4, Krautbauer 3, two with 1). Steals - CMR 13 (Frank 6, Yurek 3, four with 1), Flt. 16 (Habel 4, Krautbauer 4, O'Connell 4, Younkin 2, two with 1). Blocks - CMR 4 (Anderson 2, Foster, Striepe), Flt. 2 (Krautbauer, Brown). Turnovers - CMR 29, Flt. 26. Total Fouls - CMR 26, Flt. 19. Fouled out - O'Connell.