Glacier cools Dogs in opener
Glacier senior Shay Smithwick-Hann, number 21, rebounds the ball under pressure from Whitefish junior Drew Galbraith, number 52, and senior Willie Roche, number 22, during their game on Tuesday night. Glacier won the game 63 to 27.
After an ice-cold two quarters of basketball to start the season, the Glacier boys warmed right up and returned to old form on Tuesday night.
The run and gun Wolfpack came out after halftime and more than tripled its 18-point first-half score and waxed Whitefish 63-27 in a nonconference game at Glacier High.
Glacier senior Connor Fuller scored a game-high 13 points and had two of Glacier’s 10 3-pointers in the game, seven of which came in a lights-out second half.
“First game of the season, we’ve got guys playing for the first time, they’re a little nervous, they have butterflies,” Glacier coach Mark Harkins, entering his third year as head coach, said. “Credit Whitefish’s defense, they challenged our shooters and they took us out of our comfort zone a little bit.”
The first half was a cold one offensively for both squads as last year’s league-leading scoring threats were clearly missing from the start. Last season, both Whitefish and Glacier made the state tournament in their respective classes with their league’s top scorers. Glacier graduated Ben Cutler, the top AA scorer (23.3 ppg), and Whitefish graduated Colt Idol, the top A scorer (22.1 ppg).
“We were very balanced scoring tonight, which is what we have to do,” Harkins said. “We had 10 out of 11 guys score, so we’re sharing it a little bit and that’s going to be important for us. Every night, who knows who’s going to step up and carry the load for us scoring.”
Bryan Chery made three 3-pointers and finished with 10 points, Shay Smithwick-Hann had six points and nine rebounds and Trey Griffith added three treys a la nine points for Glacier (1-0).
“The first two and a half quarters we ran the game plan exactly to a ‘T’,” Whitefish first-year head coach Mark Casazza said. “We told them, we’re not going to win a shootout.”
Glacier forced 24 turnovers in the game and went on a 17-0 run in the third quarter to begin distancing itself from its Northwestern A foe (0-1).
“The wheels just fell off,” Casazza said. “You have to hand it to (Glacier), they busted their butts. (Harkins) has a great program growing here and in the second half they shot the ball real well.”
“We held a team to 10 points in the first half and 27 overall, that’s a pretty good defensive effort and that’s been our focus,” Harkins said. “Offense will come as it did in the second half, but we wanted to focus on defense and I was really pleased with that tonight.”
Glacier hosts Lake City High of Couer d’Alene, Idaho, on Friday. Whitefish heads to the Tip Off Tournament in Ronan and Polson on Friday.
Whitefish 8 2 11 6 — 27
Glacier 8 10 18 27 — 63
WHITEFISH (0-1) — Chris Forrest 2 0-1 5, Austin Green 0 0-1 0, Willie Roche 2 0-0 4, Gage Vasquez 3 0-2 6, Cooper Olson 1 0-0 3, Connor Silliker 3 1-2 7, Zach Maason 1 0-0 2. Totals 12 1-5 27.
GLACIER (1-0) — Bryan Chery 3 1-2 10, Grahm Schmaltz 3 0-0 7, Freddie Blodnick 2 3-4 8, Colter Hanson 2 0-0 4, Shay Smithwick-Hann 2 2-3 6, Logan Quay 1 0-0 2, Trey Griffith 3 0-0 9, Wiley Fusaro 1 0-0 2, Connor Fuller 5 1-2 13, Brandon Doty 1 0-0 2, Mario Venturini 0 0-2 0. Totals 23 7-13 63.
3-point goals: Forrest, Olson, Chery 3, Griffith 3, Fuller 2, Blodnick, Schmaltz. Team fouls: Whitefish 15, Glacier 16. Fouled out: None. Team Rebounds: Whitefish 18, Glacier 34. Turnovers: Whitefish 24, Glacier 11.