Vals shock Bravettes

Bigfork rallies from 16-point, 2nd-half deficit; Fierro puts back game winner with 5 seconds left

Witnesses had a hard time grasping exactly what happened.

Even afterward, coaches had a hard time piecing together how it transpired.

Did the Class A Bigfork High School girls' basketball team really erase a 16-point deficit midway through the third quarter in Kalispell on Saturday and beat Class AA Flathead, 54-53?

Believe it.

Six-foot-2 senior Alyssa Fierro made the game-winning basket with 5 seconds left by putting back a missed Hattie Bowen layup and Flathead's Meghan O'Connell missed a running jumper from about the free-throw line at the buzzer.

The Valkyries upset the Bravettes. It was the 10th straight victory for the fourth-ranked Vals, who improved to 11-1.

"We won - it's so exciting," Fierro said. "This shows we can play with anybody now."

After the Bravettes missed the front end of a bonus trip to the free-throw line with 21.2 seconds remaining, Fierro got the rebound and the Valkyries got the ball downcourt. They called a timeout with 12 seconds left to set up a play.

Fierro got the ball first, but couldn't get clear for a shot.

"I got the ball and didn't see an opening at all, so I passed it out to Hattie (Bowen), who drove it," Fierro said. "It came off the backboard and I honestly didn't think I was going to get the rebound. But I did. I put it back up and finally made the one that counted. It worked."

Fierro, who made just one of 11 shots in the first half, nearly notched a triple-double with 15 points, 18 rebounds and seven blocks. Her game-winner capped a 21-5 run in the game's final 9 minutes.

"We've never come back from 11 down in the fourth - that's an awful lot to come back from," Bigfork coach Nate Hammond said. "We only scored 17 (in the fourth). You can't score more than 20 in a quarter very often. Not only do you have to score a lot, you have to hold them down, which is pretty tough to do. So I don't know how we got it to roll the way it did."

It was the second straight come-from-behind victory with a last-second, game-winning shot for the Vals.

Bowen and Roxy Thurman each added 14 points in the victory and combined for 12 rebounds as the Vals out-rebounded the Bravettes, 49-41.

It was an eye-popping, shaking-of-the-head ending to a game that saw the winning team turn the ball over 30 times and make only one of 15 shots (seven percent) from short range in the second quarter.

"It was absolutely torturous," Hammond said. "But it was tough because they were missing good shots. So I couldn't yell at the girls. I had to keep encouraging them to keep shooting because they were getting good shots and they were in the right spots."

The outcome could have been affected by some sort of divine intervention.

The game was stopped for about 20 minutes with 4:25 left in the third quarter after Bigfork senior Jaylee Haveman went down hard with a neck injury. She laid, mostly unmoving, on the court the entire time. The Kalispell Fire Department responded and paramedics used a backboard to move her onto a gurney and take her to the hospital for X-rays.

"After we lost Jaylee, we just knew that we had to step up," Fierro said.

The Bravettes scored four straight points after the injury, then the teams exchanged six points apiece before the Vals went on their decisive run.

"They had a reason to win the game and that was Jaylee," said a shocked and quiet Flathead coach Kim Elliott. "They (the Bravettes) thought they had it won. We didn't play right with the lead. We played all wrong with the lead - going down and shooting quickly.

"Our entire season now will be determined on how we respond from this game - scoring five points in the final quarter and losing on our home court."

The Bravettes made just 18 of 71 shots (25 percent), including two of 18 (11 percent) in the final frame.

Flathead's Kendalyn Habel registered another double-double with 27 points, including four 3-pointers, and 10 rebounds. She also had four steals. Meghan O'Connell tallied eight points, eight steals, five assists and two rebounds.

While the Vals used a full-court game to win, it's the opposite of what they wanted to do.

"We figured we needed to get it into as much of a half-court set as we could," Hammond said. "I didn't want to get into a run-and-gun match with them, but in the fourth quarter we had to. So we started pressing. We couldn't stand to sit back on our heels when we're behind, so we had to gamble - even though that wasn't the style we wanted to play.

"Somehow, for some reason, it worked out for us.

"Sometimes, when you press, they get good looks but you force them to shoot early shots. That's actually what happened. Even though we didn't force them into turnovers, we forced them into a quick shot.

"It's a gamble and I don't know how it paid off, but it did."

Bigfork 11 10 16 17 - 54

Flathead 8 21 19 5 - 53

BIGFORK (11-1) - Quindee Averill 0-0 0-0 0, Emily Hardman 0-0 0-0 0, Hattie Bowen 4-13 5-6 14, Avery Vogel 0-1 5-8 5, Roxy Thurman 5-10 4-4 14, Alyssa Fierro 6-19 3-6 15, Kailey Fierro 0-2 0-0 0, Jaylee Haveman 2-5 0-0 4, Mallery Knoll 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 18-51 17-24 54.

FLATHEAD (5-6) - Shaina Evans 2-6 0-0 4, Kali Radel 1-4 0-0 3, Kendalyn Habel 9-22 5-7 27, Ally Krautbauer 1-6 3-5 5, Meghan O'Connell 3-14 2-2 8, Ashley Younkin 0-7 0-0 0, Shelby Heaton 0-2 0-0 0, Ashley Brown 1-3 1-2 3, Kaylyn Heaton 1-7 1-2 3. Totals 18-71 12-18 53.

3-point goals - Bf. 2-6 (Thurman 1-2, Bowen 1-4), Flt. 5-20 (Habel 4-10, Radel 1-4). Rebounds - Bf. 49 (A. Fierro 18, K. Fierro 8, Bowen 7, Vogel 5, team 5, Haveman 2, three tied with 1), Flt. 41 (Habel 10, Younkin 6, Brown 6, Heaton 5, Evans 5, team 4, Krautbauer 3, O'Connell 2). Assists - Bf. 9 (Vogel 5, K. Fierro 3, Thurman), Flt. 8 (O'Connell 5, three with 1). Steals - Bf. 8 (Bowen 3, Vogel 2, A. Fierro 2, Averill), Flt. 18 (O'Connell 8, Habel 4, Younkin 3, Krautbauer 2, Radel). Blocks - Bf. 8 (A. Fierro 7, Vogel), Flt. 1 (Brown). Turnovers - Bf. 30, Flt. 17. Total fouls - Bf. 15, Flt. 16. Fouled out - Heaton.