Helena Capital survives Wolfpack scare
Say this much for future Wolfpack opponents: They won't have to battle overconfidence.
The Glacier High School girls' basketball team put a major scare into Helena Capital on Friday night before the Western AA front runner pulled away for a 50-34 victory.
The Wolfpack dropped to 0-3 in conference play and 1-10 overall, but held an 8-1 lead midway through the first quarter and trailed by just one point, 18-17, at halftime. The Lady Bruins (8-3 overall) used an 18-5 third-quarter surge to remain perfect in Western AA play at 5-0.
The Wolfpack used myriad defenses and a deliberate offense to frustrate the Lady Bruins and dictate the game's tempo. The approach worked wonders - for 16 minutes.
After scoring nine points in each of the first two quarters, the Lady Bruins tallied nine points within the first two minutes of the second half. Their lead swelled to double digits by the middle of the third frame as their increased defensive pressure created open scoring opportunities.
Senior guard Ashley Ames led Capital with 13 points and five rebounds, followed by junior guard Kelsi Brekke with nine points, five boards and four steals.
Sophomore guard Sydney Sharaf led the Wolfpack with 11 points, followed by junior post Emilee Hashley and junior guard Lindsea Vaudt with six apiece. Hashley grabbed eight rebounds, and Vaudt had four.
"I thought we just did a lot of very good things against a very, very good team," Glacier coach Doug Hashley said. "Capital: Boy, are they loaded?
"They had the inside-outside game going, and they started to put a little bit more intense pressure on us that second half, and we didn't handle that as well as we did the first half."
Glacier hit just two field goals in the third quarter while going 0-for-8 from the free-throw line. The Wolfpack committed 23 turnovers on the night, compared to Capital's 14.
"We didn't play our best half the first half," Capital coach Bill Pilgeram said. "I thought Glacier did a nice job mixing up defenses and keeping it close and everything, and we just wanted to come out and try to be more the aggressor and dictate things. I thought the girls did a good job with that and, obviously, played a better second half."
The Wolfpack drained eight first-half field goals in only 20 attempts. Most shots were preceded by several passes as Glacier continues to develop a patient offensive mindset.
"I think we're a better team by slowing it down," coach Hashley said. "There's instances that we certainly want to run, but as we've developed throughout the year, we've kind of found that we're a little better team when we're looking for that good shot instead of getting it off right off the bat."
Glacier narrowly out-rebounded Capital, 40-39, and could have kept the game even closer had it not finished 10-for-24 from the charity stripe.
"We knew we could handle them and we could give them a fight, which we did," Vaudt said. "Especially that first half, we came out really strong. We just have to get that second half in. We'll get there.
"On offensive, we've slowed the ball down, and we're getting it down pretty well."
Glacier held Capital below its season average of 51.6 points per game as the Lady Bruins shot just 32.1 percent from the field.
Capital visits Flathead today at 2:30 p.m., but Pilgeram said that matchup didn't alter the Lady Bruins' strategy on Friday.
"We were trying to play all our subs more evenly and get more bodies through and not really wear anybody down because we do have another game in less than a day," he said. "That factored in a little bit, but I don't think it affected the game. I thought Glacier had a great first half and impressed me."
Glacier is back on the court today at 2 p.m. when it hosts Helena High.
"I'm just so really proud and excited with the way this program's going and the effort the girls are giving," coach Hashley said. "We still have a lot of things to work on, and we still make a lot of mistakes under pressure, but … I'm very pleased with where we're at. We just have to keep going to the next level."
Capital 9 9 18 14 - 50
Glacier 8 9 5 12 - 34
CAPITAL (8-3, 5-0) - Kelsi Brekke 3-9 1-4 9, Becky Miros 2-5 2-2 6, Alecia Wilson 0-2 1-2 1, Kelsey Grey 1-2 0-2 2, Kadee Jones 2-9 1-2 5, Mary Beall 1-1 0-0 2, Ashley Ames 5-10 3-5 13, Sammi Bignell 3-8 0-0 7, Kalli Jo Heller 1-4 2-2 5, Megan Graff 0-1 0-0 0, Markki Johnston 0-1 0-0 0, Mikal Chancy 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 18-55 10-19 50.
GLACIER (1-10, 0-3) - Kayla Smart 2-4 0-4 4, Kadie Latimer 0-4 2-3 2, Lindsea Vaudt 1-6 4-8 6, Emilee Hashley 2-6 1-4 6, Ashlee Waggener 1-7 1-2 3, Sydney Sharaf 5-10 0-1 11, Zoey Pettit 0-0 2-2 2, Jolee Kampf 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 11-38 10-24 34.
3-point goals - Cap. 4-15 (Brekke 2-6, Heller 1-3, Bignell 1-4, Wilson 0-1, Johnston 0-1), Gla. 2-8 (Hashley 1-2, Sharaf 1-4, Latimer 0-1, Waggener 0-1). Rebounds - Cap. 39 (Brekke 5, Ames 5, Grey 3, Jones 3, Chancy 3, Wilson 2, Johnston 2, Beall 2, Heller 2, team 12), Gla. 40 (Hashley 8, Smart 6, Waggener 6, Kampf 4, Vaudt 4, Sharaf 3, Latimer, Pettit, team 7). Steals - Cap. 12 (Brekke 4, Heller 3, Miros, Beall, Chancy, Bignell, team), Gla. 6 (Smart, Latimer, Vaudt, Hashley, Waggener, Kendra Bouley). Turnovers - Cap. 14, Gla. 23. Team fouls - Cap. 22, Gla. 15. Fouled out - Miros.