Loud and clear

Bravettes respond from Bigfork loss by dominating Helena High

What a response.

Six days after an extremely-hard, self-examining loss to Class A Bigfork, the Flathead High School girls' basketball team dominated Helena High Friday night, 79-53.

The Bravettes led by as many as 31 points in their first Western AA victory.

Five-foot-7 senior Kendalyn Habel had 27 points, 15 rebounds (including eight on offense) and six steals. Guard Ally Krautbauer netted a career-high 16 points. Post Kaylyn Heaton had 10 points - all in the first half. And guard Ashley Younkin came off the bench to add 10 points, six rebounds, five steals and three assists.

"I'll tell you what: It was a lot better coming into the locker room after this game than the last one," Younkin said. "We are all friends and we were just sitting in dead silence (after the Bigfork game). But we played with passion in this one and finally played as a team. That's the key for our team. We have the talent and potential, but we just needed that extra passion to play as a team. We have been working on the relationships with each other and not having a divided family like in the past."

Trailing 20-16 entering the second quarter after the Bengals went 9-for-12 from the free-throw line thanks to a 9-3 foul differential, the Bravettes scored 32 points in the second quarter and started the second half with a 10-0 run.

"That 32-point second quarter was awesome," Habel said. "We decided to press in full-court man-to-man. Usually that doesn't work out so well for us, but it worked really well in this one. We have been working on defense a lot in practice."

Helena didn't score a two-point field goal for the first 6 minutes, 16 seconds of the second half. That's when the Bravettes led by 31 points, 63-32.

All told, the Bravettes registered 22 steals, out-rebounded the Bengals, 46-28 (including 21 offensive boards), and put nine players in the scoring column.

Although senior guard Meghan O'Connell scored only four points, she tallied seven steals, six rebounds and five assists. Senior forward Ashley Brown had nine rebounds and two points. Senior guards Shaina Evans and Kali Radel each hit 3-pointers and junior Ariel Johnson even got in on the act.

For Helena - which boasts an extremely young team - it was not only a battle against a senior-laden team with a chip on its shoulder, but a battle without its head coach. Cyndee Locket did not make the trip because of a family emergency.

"Some of it (the loss) is probably a lack of connection between the kids and coaching staff," Helena junior varsity coach Brandy Moses said. "We all miss Cyndee. It's our first road trip of the year and we are staying overnight. It's been a long day, but the kids played hard.

"Really, minus the second quarter, we stayed in the game."

Minus the second quarter, Flathead out-scored the Bengals just 47-44.

No Bengals scored in double figures, but they had nine players hit shots. Kelli Hubley led the way with nine points, going 7-for-8 from the free-throw line, and six rebounds. Freshman forward Monica Grimsrud had eight points, four rebounds and three assists. Mariah Shein also had eight points. Jordan Briski and Kelsey Williams each added seven points. Williams also had five rebounds.

The Bengals dropped to 1-10 on the season.

"This (Helena) team is going to be around for a while and they are going to be good," Flathead coach Kim Elliott said. "They should be awfully proud for coming out and beating us in the first quarter with tough man-to-man defense."

Besides a single possession late in the third quarter when Flathead took of its full-court press and showed a 1-3-1 zone defense, the entire game for both teams was played in man-to-man defense. It resulted in the teams combining for 56 turnovers, of which Helena committed 32.

Another big difference for the Bravettes was their shooting percentage. They made 44 percent (31-for-70) of their shots.

"We've been working on our bunnies," Younkin said. "We put backboard buddies on the backboard, so if you didn't shoot it exactly right it would bounce back, which I think helped out a lot."

Habel said everything was better.

"We had better passes, a better press, better rebounding - we worked on boxing out a lot," she said. "We've been working on everything."

The Bravettes (1-2 in conference, 6-5 overall) are back in action today at home against Helena Capital (5-0, 8-3).

Helena 20 9 12 12 - 53

Flathead 16 32 17 14 - 79

HELENA (1-4, 1-10) - Kelli Hubley 1-7 7-8 9, Jordan Briski 2-5 2-2 7, Kelsey Williams 2-5 3-5 7, Sarah Williams 2-5 3-5 7, Sarah Jackson 2-7 0-0 6, Mariah Shein 3-8 2-5 8, Alex May-Fraser 1-3 2-3 4, Maria Miller 1-1 0-0 2, Taylor Kanthack 0-0 0-0 0, Monica Grimsrud 4-5 0-0 8. Totals 17-44 16-23 53.

FLATHEAD (1-2, 6-5) - Shaina Evans 2-6 0-2 5, Kali Radel 1-3 0-0 3, Kendalyn Habel 9-23 7-8 27, Meghan O'Connell 2-6 0-0 4, Ashley Younkin 4-7 2-2 10, Shelby Heaton 0-0 0-0 0, Ashley Brown 1-5 0-2 2, Danika Johnston 0-0 0-0 0, Kaylyn Heaton 4-9 2-2 10, Ariel Johnson 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 31-70 13-18 78.

3-point goals - Hel. 3-9 (Jackson 2-4, Briski 1-2), Flt. 4-13 (Habel 2-8, Evans 1-1, Radel 1-3). Rebounds - Hel. 28 (Hubley 6, Williams 5, Grimsrud 4, team 3, four with 2, two with 1), Flt. 46 (Habel 15, Brown 9, Younkin 24, O'Connell 6, team 3, three with 2). Assists - Hel. 8 (Grimsrud 3, five with 1), Flt. 13 (O'Connell 5, Younkin 3, Habel 2, Radel 2, Brown). Steals - Hel. 11 (Williams 4, Sesselman 2, Jackson 2, Grimsrud 2, Kanthack), Flt. 22 (O'Connell 7, Habel 6, Younkin 5, Heaton 2, Brown, Radel). Blocks - Hel. 3 (Grimsrud, Williams, Shein), Flt. 0. Turnovers - Hel. 32, Flt. 24. Total fouls - Hel. 15, Flt. 19. Fouled out - none.