Lady Bengals put clamps on Wolfpack

The outcome resembled the previous night's. But encouraging strides were replaced by frustrating, uncharacteristic missteps.

So it goes with youth and sports.

The Glacier High School girls' basketball team lost a 51-30 Western AA contest to Helena High on Saturday, less than 24 hours after an inspired outing against conference heavyweight Helena Capital.

The Wolfpack's momentum seemed to carry over from Friday's 50-34 loss as Glacier raced to an early 4-0 lead and knotted the game at 10-all after the first quarter. But the Lady Bengals led the rest of the way, including a 21-13 halftime advantage.

Helena took firm control after the break when the Wolfpack's largest run was a 4-0 spurt to end the third quarter.

"I thought we regressed a little bit tonight," Glacier coach Doug Hashley said. "The whole idea is to keep maintaining a consistent, well-played game, and I thought that we'd done that for the last three weeks."

Glacier's valiant effort against Capital was preceded by a victory against Columbia Falls and a three-point loss to Libby. The Wolfpack dropped to 0-4 in Western AA play and 1-11 overall, while Helena improved to 2-4 in conference and 2-10 overall.

"I just felt we have been playing good basketball, and I guess I did not see this one coming," Hashley said.

"I think we need to make it to the next level, and to take a step back like this: It happened, it's over, but it's my job to make sure we figure out how to get to that next step."

Junior post Emilee Hashley and sophomore guard Sydney Sharaf scored eight points apiece for Glacier. Junior guard/forward Lindsea Vaudt tallied seven rebounds, and junior guard/forward Kayla Smart had seven steals, including a first-quarter takeaway that she converted into a layup.

The Wolfpack out-rebounded the Lady Bengals, 38-36, but finished with 26 turnovers while shooting 28.3 percent from the field.

Junior guard Sarah Jackson led Helena with 19 points, followed by freshman post Monica Grimsrud with eight. Jackson, who leads Class AA in 3-pointers, hit three of eight attempts from beyond the arc, but her fellow Lady Bengals went 0-for-8.

Helena assistant coach Brandi Moss said the Lady Bengals' key was keeping the Wolfpack's offense out of synch.

"We felt really good about our man-to-man defense," she said. "The girls worked really hard in help-side. They went to the boards hard, and we played really good post defense today."

Glacier's defensive intensity increased after halftime as the Lady Bengals scored just 19 points from the field. Sharaf and sophomore Skyler St. Onge were among the Wolfpack defenders leading the charge.

"It's never too late to make a difference, and that's why we kept playing hard the whole time," coach Hashley said. "It gave me an opportunity to see some of the younger kids compete, and I was very happy with some of the performances I got."

Glacier resumes Western AA play on Tuesday with a trip to Missoula Hellgate. Emilee Hashley said the Wolfpack is confident it can regain its recent form, despite Saturday's difficulties.

"We know that we could be doing better than that, and we know at practice we work so hard, and we just need to reward ourselves," she said.

"I think it's our mental toughness. I think we have all the things we need, we just need to use them like we know how."

Helena 10 11 13 17 - 51

Glacier 10 3 10 7 - 30

HELENA (2-10, 2-4) - Kelli Hubley 2-8 3-3 7, Kelsey Williams 2-7 1-1 5, Sarah Sesselman 1-2 0-0 2, Sarah Jackson 5-13 6-7 19, Mariah Shein 2-9 0-1 4, Maria Miller 1-3 0-0 2, Taylor Kanthack 2-3 0-0 4, Monica Grimsrud 3-3 2-3 8, Alex May-Fraser 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 18-50 12-15 51.

GLACIER (1-11, 0-4) - Kayla Smart 2-8 0-0 4, Jolee Kampf 1-3 1-2 3, Kadie Latimer 0-6 0-1 0, Lindsea Vaudt 1-3 0-3 2, Emilee Hashley 4-5 0-0 8, Ashlee Waggener 1-5 1-2 3, Sydney Sharaf 3-10 2-2 8, Zoey Pettit 1-1 0-0 2, Skyler St. Onge 0-3 0-0 0, Kendra Bouley 0-1 0-0, Anna Lybeck 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 13-46 4-10 30.

3-point goals - Hel. 3-16 (Jackson 3-8, Hubley 0-2, Shein 0-5, May-Fraser 0-1), Gla. 0-6 (Latimer 0-4, Waggener 0-1, St. Onge 0-1). Rebounds - Hel. 36 (Shein 7, Williams 6, Hubley 4, Kanthack 3, May-Fraser 2, Miller 2, Sesselman, Jackson, Jordan Briski, Grimsrud, team 8), Gla. 38 (Vaudt 7, Smart 3, Latimer 3, Hashley 3, Sharaf 3, Waggener 2, Pettit 2, Lybeck 2, Kampf, St. Onge, Bouley, tam 10). Steals - Hel. 10 (Shein 3, Kanthack 2, Grimsrud 2, Hubley, Jackson, Briski), Gla. 13 (Smart 7, Waggener 2, Latimer, Vaudt, Hashley, Sharaf). Turnovers - Hel. 19, Gla. 26. Team fouls - Hel. 15, Gla. 14. Fouled out - none.