Glacier rally falls short versus CMR
Glacier senior Cami Mathison, 12, pushes her way through CMR defenders during the first half of their game on Saturday in Kalispell
Kris Salonen has a big hole to fill in the Glacier Wolfpack starting lineup, but the head coach had a few girls turn in good auditions on Saturday afternoon.
Down 14 points to C.M. Russell in the third quarter, the Wolfpack rallied back to within a point with under two minutes to play in the season-opening Class AA girls basketball game at Glacier.
The Rustlers traded a pair of baskets with Glacier in the final minutes and added three decisive free throws. But it was a defensive stand with 32 seconds left that hampered the potential game-tying shot and all but sealed the eventual 51-47 victory for CMR.
"We definitely competed so I'm happy," Salonen said. "We competed but we got in that little hole and had to dig our way out of it. But hey, we didn't quit."
"The Wolfpack did a nice job of forcing the issue there," C.M. Russell coach Chad Olson said. "They could have easily folded when we had them down eight or nine there with four minutes to go. They were definitely more disciplined than we were. Give them a lot of credit."
Even before tip-off, Glacier had itself disadvantaged. Senior Rachel Cutler, who led last year's 7-14 team in scoring with a 10.2 points-per-game average, was lost for the season due to a knee injury at a recent practice.
"What I told the kids is you can't replace Rachel Cutler, you just can't do it," Salonen said. "But I really believe there's other kids that can step up. That's what's happening and that's what's going to happen. It just gives somebody else an opportunity and so that's what happened tonight."
Freshman Cassidy Hashley showed signs of her all-state older sister, Emilee. The 6-foot-1 freshman scored 10 of her game-high 14 points in the fourth quarter and pulled down five rebounds. Senior Baylee Quay had nine points, five rebounds and two steals and senior Paige Latimer had seven points and four rebounds. Sophomore Nicole Heavirland scored six points, senior Ashlee Waggener had four points and four rebounds and senior Cami Mathison had four points and two steals.
"We were lucky to walk out of here with a win tonight," Olson said. "Give them credit for sticking with their gameplan and making it interesting there at the end."
After the close loss, Salonen was still in higher spirits than most coaches after a defeat. For one, she pointed out, there appears to be plenty of life in this year's team. Secondly, compared to last year's meeting, when the Rustlers trounced Glacier 63-46, Saturday's game didn't defeat anyone's confidence. CMR played in the state championship last year, narrowly losing to Bozeman 36-31. Glacier's No. 1 goal this season, Salonen said, is to make the state tournament for the first time in the program's history.
"If you know that you can compete with a good, solid Eastern AA team then you know that you've got a chance," the coach said.
"Today we took steps forward. We got a loss but we took huge steps forward for the program. I asked them to turn a corner today, and they did."
C.M. Russell 14 12 12 13 - 51
Glacier 13 6 10 18 - 47
C.M.RUSSELL - Tess Sandefur 1 0-0 3, Lexi Pyette 1 2-2 5, Alison Sullivan 2 3-6 7, Alex Lowry 1 5-8 8, Diondra Denton 5 5-7 8, Sara Wier 2 0-0 4, Alli Sexe 3 1-2 7. Totals 15 16-25 51.
GLACIER - Nicole Heavirland 3 0-0 6, Rachel Chery 1 0-0 2, Paige Latimer 1 5-8 7, Cami Mathison 2 0-0 4, Cassidy Hashley 6 2-2 14, Halle Wilson 1 0-0 2, Baylee Quay 3 3-3 9, Ashlee Waggener 1 1-2 3. Totals 18 11-15 47.
3-pointers - CMR 5 (Denton 2, Lowry, Pyette, Sandefer), Glacier 0; Rebounds - CMR 24 (Denton 6, Sullivan 5, Wier 4); Glacier 22 (Hashley 5, Quay 5, Waggener 4, Latimer 4); Turnovers - CMR 19, Glacier 21; Steals - CMR 10 (Pyette 4, Denton 3, Lowry 2); Glacier 9 (Mathison 2, Quay 2); Fouls - CMR 13, Glacier 19; Fouled out - CMR (Sullivan), Glacier (Patty Hughes).