Edwards, Chery lead Glacier boys
Glacier's Bryan Chery goes up for a shot as Great Falls' Santino Williams jumps up to attempt to block his shot.
Glacier's Ryan Edwards fights through the Great Falls High Bison to gets his hands on a ball passed into him by teammate Trey Griffith (3) during Friday evening's Class AA home game.
Friday night was Ryan Edwards' night.
Listed at 6-foot-10, Glacier's supersized sophomore took control in the fourth quarter with the Wolfpack clinging to a four-point lead against Great Falls.
Edwards scored nine of his team's 14 points in the final frame and the Wolfpack held on to win its third game in four nights, 54-47 over the Eastern AA Bison.
"Our advantage tonight was height and I thought the kids did a great job of pounding it in to Ryan and they all did a great job on the offensive rebounds," Glacier head coach Mark Harkins said.
Edwards, one of three Glacier starters listed at 6-4 or taller, finished with 13 points and nine rebounds and became the fourth player in as many games to lead the Wolfpack (3-1) in scoring. Senior Bryan Chery also had 13 points and senior Trey Griffith had 12 points, four steals and four rebounds.
"I'm excited about that. We're very balanced. Any night somebody can step up and be the guy for us," Harkins said. "That makes it fun."
It wasn't much fun at first. Glacier came out against the team's first AA opponent of the season sputtering a bit on both ends of the court. The fast guardplay of Great Falls helped the Bison jump out to a 19-10 lead in the first.
Griffith came to the rescue with one of his vintage shots, stepping up and hitting a 3-pointer in the final seconds of the first quarter that woke up the Wolfpack. Griffith went on to make his next three-straight treys, including one roughly two minutes before halftime, that gave Glacier its first lead of the game, 26-24.
The 'Pack never looked back and never trailed again.
"Trey is our emotional spark," Harkins said. "He hit those 3s and got us back into it on offense. So that kind of got us rolling and got the kids playing with confidence."
Senior Marshall Boyland helped Glacier dominate in the paint and finished with eight points and five rebounds while senior Colter Hanson chipped in six points and six rebounds. The Wolfpack outrebounded Great Falls 37-23.
"Glacier has a nice team," Bison head coach Bob Howard said. "They came out and took some things away from us and made it real difficult and we didn't respond very well. We didn't get any second shots and it went downhill from there."
Coming off two impressive victories over Class A teams, including an improbable victory in Libby on Tuesday that saw the Wolfpack down 15 points with 2:30 left, Glacier is showing signs of early-season prowess despite losing a number of talented seniors from last year's squad. Glacier went 13-7 in the regular season and advanced to the state tournament for the second year in a row last season, but graduated seven seniors.
But so far, so good.
"I'm excited about our guys. I think we're stilling figuring a lot of things out," Harkins said.
"The kids feed off each other. They like each other. I think our chemistry is great. I'm excited to see where this team goes."
The Wolfpack's final game before Christmas break is in Couer d'Alene against Lake City on Tuesday.
Great Falls 19 7 10 11 - 47
Glacier 13 15 12 14 - 54
GREAT FALLS - Santino Williams 4 0-0 10, Trey Skunkcap 2 2-2 6, Shyke Smalls 3 0-0 6, Zach Beston 3 0-0 6, Matt Schmitz 6 4-7 17, Trevor Bolton 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 6-9 47
GLACIER - Bryan Chery 4 4-6 13, Trey Griffith 4 0-0 12, Marshall Boyland 3 2-2 8, Colter Hanson 2 2-2 6, Brandon Doty 1 0-0 2, Ryan Edwards 6 1-2 13. Totals 20 9-12 54.
3-pointers - Great Falls 3 (Williams 2, Schmitz), Glacier 5 (Griffith 4, Chery); Total rebounds - Great Falls 23 (Beston 6, Skunkcap 5), Glacier 37 (Edwards 9, Hanson 6, Boyland 5, Griffith 4, Jacob Leininger 4, Brandon Doty 4); Team turnovers - Great Falls 17, Glacier 16; Steals - Great Falls 6 (Smalls 2), Glacier 10 (Griffith 4, Hanson 2, Edwards 2); Team fouls - Great Falls 11, Glacier 13; Fouled out - None.