Slaybaugh, 'Dogs slay Bravettes
Saturday didn't start out with the appearance of being Jessie Slaybaugh's night.
Whitefish's junior guard went through the first three quarters of a nonconference basketball game with the Flathead Bravettes pretty quietly - two points.
The silence stopped at the 4:29 mark of the fourth period.
That's when Slaybaugh's eagle eye came through with the first of three 3-pointers.
The second came 22 seconds later and the third was a 4-point play with 2:07 to go. That one put the Bulldogs on top for good.
When all was said and done, Slaybaugh had a 14-point night and Northwestern A Whitefish (0-2 3-5) had a 53-48 victory over Western AA Flathead (0-0, 0-7).
"I just put the previous quarters aside. And then I knew the team needed me, so I stepped up and shot the threes. I shoot better under pressure. It just came for me," Slaybaugh said.
"I just needed to calm down, get myself together and shoot it.
"The halftime talk definitely helped," she smiled.
The talk came courtesy of Whitefish head coach Tim Olson.
"He told me I'm a great shooter and I just need to know that … and shoot it," she said.
"She is a great shooter. She's been just hesitant to pull the trigger the last couple games. I told her at halftime she's a great shooter and to let it fly. She was the difference in that fourth quarter," Olson said.
Slaybaugh's fourth-quarter heroics helped Whitefish overcome a slow start.
"I don't think we had our best first half of the year," Olson said.
"We were a little lethargic, going through the motions, turning the ball over … with really no pressure. Flathead did a good job of taking us out of our game plan," he said.
"We just all calmed down and started recognizing their defense and realizing what we needed to do," Slaybaugh said.
While Whitefish was slow out of the gate, the Bravettes were on the fast track.
Flathead got buckets from five different people en route to a double-digit first-half lead.
The Bravettes led by as many as 11 points in the first half.
Kelsey Hildal led Flathead with 14 points. Ariel Johnson added 11 and Danika Johnson contributed 10 points.
Whitefish cut that lead to 21-17 at intermission and continued to fight back through the third quarter.
The Bulldogs didn't claim their first lead, though, until the fourth quarter.
Trailing 32-31, senior Kate Klundt finally put Whitefish on top with two of her game-high 19 points.
Flathead coach Kim Elliott took the loss in stride.
"Where we're at … is that we are growing. I told the girls 'we are adolescents right now. We just need adversity to grow as a family.'
"I am not disappointed in them one iota," Elliott said.
"We're going to be there. We are growing and we are growing very well. It's all the way down through the program. Our program is doing exactly what we want it to be doing.
"We're learning the strengths and weaknesses of our players, who can do what," he said.
"It's nice to get wins, but this is not about winning this year. It's about a family growing up, understanding what it takes to be a family. That's the bottom line and I like where we're at."
Whitefish 6 11 14 22 - 53
Flathead 13 8 11 16 - 48
Whitefish - Jessica Slaybaugh 4 3-5 14, Torie Powell 3 2-4 8, Kate Klundt 8 3-7 19, Olivia Nagler 1 4-8 6, McCara Cullen 1 0-0 2, Paula Oliveira 2 0-0 4. Totals 19 12-24 53.
Flathead - Kelsey Hildal 5 3-4 14, Ariel Johnson 3 5-7 11, Jaimee Zorn 1 1-2 3, Danika Johnson 4 2-3 10, Samantha Thompson 0 1-2 1, Tess Brenneman 4 0-0 9.
3-point goals: Whitefish 3 (Slaybaugh), Flathead 2 (Hildal, Brenneman); Total fouls: Whitefish 18, Flathead 20. Fouled out: Johnson, Brenneman, Nagler.