Glacier girls pull away in 2nd half
Flathead's Danika Johnson battles Glacier's Patty Hughes (24) for the ball under the basket during Friday's game at Glacier.
The message from Glacier coach Kris Salonen at halftime was simple.
Tighten up the middle defensively, deny the inside pass.
The Wolfpack responded by limiting Flathead to just five third-quarter points en route to a 49-38 Western AA girls basketball victory on Friday at Glacier High School.
Flathead, which hung with Glacier through the first half, went on a scoreless stretch for the final 5:46 of the third period as the Wolfpack enjoyed its largest lead up to that point at 34-24.
Danika Johnson, who scored seven first-half points for Flathead to keep things close, was held to two in the final two periods.
“Baylee Quay inside on Danika, she battled,” Salonen said.
“I’m so proud of her. She’s just 5-8.”
Johnson, who had five blocks in the game, is 6-foot-3.
Flathead (3-9 overall and 0-5 league) tried to push the ball inside to Johnson in the third period, but Glacier’s defense forced several turnovers on forced passes.
“We forced it too much inside,” Flathead coach Karly Tait said.
“Give them credit, they played hard the whole way through.”
Flathead led three times in the contest, the last time at 24-23 on a trey by the hot-shooting Brittany Earnest.
A free throw by Quay tied the game at 24, and a trey by Brooke Watkins with 3:54 left in the third quarter put the Wolfpack on top to stay.
Flathead managed one more surge, getting within six points on a trey by Christyne Hanson early in the fourth quarter, but Glacier (7-7, 2-4) capitalized at the free throw line to pull away for the 11-point victory. Paige Latimer’s trey with 3:11 put the game out of reach as Glacier led by 12 points.
The Wolfpack hit 9-of-16 shots from the charity stripe in the final period and went 19-for-30 for the game.
“I thought we played hard,” Tait said.
“We’re still trying to put 32 full minutes together. I think we did put more minutes together tonight than in previous games.”
Earnest wound up leading the Bravettes in scoring with 15 points. She did all of that on five treys.
Cutler led Glacier with 11 points. The Wolfpack had seven players score.
“The biggest thing right now is we’re focused on being a team,” Salonen said.
“We go with nine girls and everyone who has stepped in is giving us good minutes, playing hard, competing.”
This marks the third year of crosstown basketball. Glacier now leads the series with Flathead, 3-2.
Flathead 10 9 5 14 — 38
Glacier 13 9 12 15 — 49
FLATHEAD — Sam Thompson 0 2-4 2, Christyne Hanson 1 2-2 5, Taylor Twitchel 1 0-0 2, Tess Brenneman 2 1-3 5, Brittany Earnest 5 0-0 15, Danika Johnson 3 3-4 9. Totals: 12 8-15 38.
GLACIER — Rachel Cutler 2 7-10 11, Paige Latimer 1 0-0 3, Sydney Sharaf 0 7-9 7, Baylee Quay 3 3-6 9, Patty Hughes 1 0-0 2, Brooke Watkins 3 0-0 8, Ashlee Waggener 3 2-5 9. Totals: 13 19-30 49.
3-point goals: Hanson, Earnest (5); Waggener, Watkins (2), Latimer; Team fouls: Flathead 22, Glacier 15; Fouled out: Twitchel; Technical: Flathead bench.