Big Sky frustrates Bravettes
Tinkle nets 22 points, 14 rebounds, 7 blocks
The Bravettes hung with Big Sky.
But that fact is going to keep Flathead High School girls' basketball coach Kim Elliott up at night because the Bravettes were in position to win.
Six-foot-3 junior Joslyn Tinkle had 22 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks on Saturday to help lead Missoula Big Sky to a 63-55 Western AA victory over Flathead.
The game was frustrating, sloppy and fast-paced for both teams. They combined to commit 46 fouls and 40 turnovers while shooting 53 free throws. Flathead got into bonus free-throw shooting with a couple minutes left in the first quarter; Big Sky followed a few minutes later.
"It was sloppy at both ends," Big Sky coach Marti Leibenguth said. "It surprised me. It was pretty physical out there. They (the Bravettes) are very athletic and they take the ball to the hole well. But there were a lot of early fouls and that contributed to the game getting sloppy."
Five players fouled out and three more finished with four fouls apiece.
Big Sky never trailed - not with Flathead making only 23 percent of its shots (15-for-64).
Still, the Bravettes miraculously got to within one possession, 44-42, at the end of the third quarter. Trailing 44-35 with less than a minute left in the third, Flathead's Kendalyn Habel and Megan O'Connell had steals and coast-to-coast layups and Habel sandwiched a 3-pointer inbetween to put the game at its closest margin.
"We were in position to win it," Elliott said. "We were there - and we went through a streak of about four minutes when we missed our bunnies. But would of, could of, should of … It's draining. But, boy, did the girls work hard."
Tinkle, the future NCAA Division I player who played sparingly because of foul trouble, scored four points in the opening minute of the fourth, and the Eagles made 11 of 16 free throws in the final frame to keep themselves distanced.
"We got our composure back there at the end," Leibenguth said. "They had us rattled there for a bit, but we got our composure back and started playing basketball like we know how - making the easy pass and taking care of the basketball."
After posting eight points, six
"When Joslyn (Tinkle) was out, we couldn't get back into it and I can't get a handle on why," Elliott said. "I'm going to have to watch the film to figure it out."
The Eagles finished with a 54-percent shooting clip against the man-to-man defense of the Bravettes, who were discombobulated with matchup assignments.
"We were confused on defense and in our confusion with what we were doing, it disrupted them, too," Elliott said. "We have to clean that up. That has cost us two games because we have so much subbing going on."
The normally full-court, running Bravettes applied a full-court press just once.
"The girls didn't want to," Elliott said. "We did it once and lost two points. I believe in my girls and they said, 'Let's not do it. We need to get better at our halfcourt game.' It's only two games into the (conference) season and if we are going to get better at things, we need to work on it now."
The Bravettes dropped to 0-2 in conference and 4-4 overall.
Kelsey Schwenk added 12 points to help keep the Eagles unbeaten in Western AA play at 3-0. Four other players scored five or more points in the victory. Big Sky improved to 6-2 overall.
Lost in the loss was an amazing game by Habel. She had 27 points, 20 rebounds and three steals. She made 16 of 20 free throws. O'Connell added 17 points and four steals before fouling out. Kaylyn Heaton had six points and seven rebounds. The aggressively nimble Ally Krautbauer was frustrated by Tinkle's presence, going 0-for-10 before fouling out.
"We've been in every game," Elliott said. "We've just got to clean up a couple minutes worth of lapses. That's not a bad problem to have. This team is coming together just fine."
Big Sky 20 13 10 19 - 63
Flathead 15 12 15 13 - 55
BIG SKY (3-0, 6-2) - Joslyn Tinkle 9-13 4-5 22, Schelby Bordner 1-1 3-4 5, Brittney Leibenguth 3-7 0-2 6, Melissa Jenkins 1-5 0-0 2, Kelsey Schwenk 3-5 6-9 12, Lacy Phelan 4-7 0-0 8, Katie Showers 0-0 0-0 0, Sarah Lustgraaf 1-3 0-1 2, Sarah Lidstrom 1-2 3-4 6. Totals 23-43 16-25 63.
FLATHEAD (0-2, 4-4) - Shaina Evans 0-2 0-0 0, Kali Radel 0-4 0-0 0, Kendalyn Habel 5-19 16-20 27, Ally Krautbauer 0-10 3-4 3, Meghan O'Connell 6-14 2-2 17, Ashley Younkin 0-3 0-2 0, Shelby Heaton 0-0 0-0 0, Ashley Brown 1-3 0-0 2, Kaylyn Heaton 3-9 0-0 6. Totals 15-64 21-28 55.
3-point goals - BS 1-2 (Lidstrom 1-1), Flat. 4-14 (O'Connell 3-6, Habel 1-4). Rebounds - BS 38 (Tinkle 14, Lustgraaf 6, team 5, Leibenguth 4, Jenkins 3, Phelan 3, Schwenk 2, Showers), Flat. 41 (Habel 20, K. Heaton 7, team 7, Evans 2, O'Connell 2, Brown 2, Younkin). Assists - BS 8 (Tinkle 3, five with 1), Flat. 2 (two with 1). Steals - BS 6 (Lustgraaf 2, Schwenk 2, two with 1), Flat. 12 (O'Connell 4, Habel 3, Krautbauer 2, Younkin 2, Radel). Blocks - BS 9 (Tinkle 7, Leibenguth, Schwenk), Flat. 1 (Brown). Turnovers - BS 23, Flat. 17. Total fouls - BS 23, Flat. 23. Fouled out - Krautbauer, O'Connell, K. Heaton, Leibenguth, Jenkins.