Flathead tips Hellgate

You could forgive the Flathead Braves had they looked tired or played a little flat on Saturday afternoon.

You could forgive them had they been riding a little high after an emotional overtime victory the night before over rival Glacier.

But instead of tired and flat, the Braves (4-2 Western AA) bounced right back with a 56-44 victory over visiting Missoula Hellgate on Saturday.

“I thought overall the boys did a nice job. A huge win last night, they come back and play strong again the next day and get a win at home. That’s super,” said Flathead coach Fred Febach.

“But there was some effect to a certain degree,” he said.

“It’s tough. It’s such a quick turnaround. I’m sure most of those kids, much like myself, re-ran that game over and over again. Then you realize — it’s 3 a.m.,” Febach said.

“What I liked — and we talked about it before the game — we had an idea that we needed to start strong and I thought we did a good job of that early on,” he said.

The Braves burst to a 22-10 lead midway through the second period.

Tanner Salois and Karl Ingram took care of the early scoring, but guard Ian Gillespie hit back-to-back 3-pointers off the bench to give Flathead a scoring spark in the second quarter.

“He did great, didn’t he? Stepped in there and banged home a couple huge 3s for us. In the second half, he got fouled, hit all three free throws.

“He’s a good shooter. You can’t leave him alone. If he’s spotted up, he’s money,” the coach said of Gillespie.

“That’s what I like about this team. I can slide guys in and they make a contribution,” Febach said.

Flathead rode that spark to a 10-point lead at half.

But Hellgate fought back in the third quarter, outscoring Flathead 11-7.

“I’ve got to give Hellgate credit. They worked really hard to slow us down. They ran that zone of theirs, they really started to pack it in and we started standing still out there,” Febach said.

“Our biggest problem was we failed to move the ball quickly enough to stretch that zone a little bit,” he said.

“We stood still. When you stand still and you don’t move the ball ... defense is really good. You’ve got to make the defense work.”

The Braves didn’t score until the 2:57 mark of the period and with 44 seconds to go, their lead was down to one point.

“But we never gave up the lead. Certainly we made some mistakes, but we also did some good things out there. When we did have open looks, we got there, they fouled us and we hit some free throws,” Febach said.

Make that a lot of free throws — Hellgate was whistled for 28 fouls.

Flathead made good by going 23-for-34 from the line.

But still, Hellgate stayed close — halfway through the fourth, it was within a bucket.

But from the 4:20 mark on, Flathead made 13 of 17 free throws to slowly build on the advantage.

“Both teams were playing aggressive, especially in the lane area. Man, if you went in there, you were taking your life in your hands,” Febach said.

Salois scored a game-high 15 points to lead Flathead, followed by Gillespie and Ingram with 11 each. Ingram also led in rebounds with 11. George Sherwood added nine points, seven rebounds, three assists and four blocked shots.

Hellgate    8     11    11    14     —     44

Flathead     11    18     7    20     —     56

MISSOULA HELLGATE — Sam Hall 1 0-2 2, Nick Joscelyn 2 6-6 11, Brent Daugherty 2 2-2 6, Conner Weston 2 0-2 4, Zach Peevey 6 2-4 14, Jesse Ginn 2 3-7 7. Totals 15 13-23 44.

Flathead — Tanner Salois 3 6-8 15, Ian Gillespie 3 3-3 11, Karl Ingram 4 3-5 11, Joe Pistorese 1 2-3 4, George Sherwood 2 5-6 9, Connor Tice 0 3-7 3, Jeremy Grosswiler 1 1-2 3. Totals 14 23-34 56.

3-point goals: Hellgate 1 (Joscelyn), Flathead 5 (Salois 3, Gillespie 2), Total fouls: Hellgate 28, Flathead 22. Fouled out: Hartmann, Joscelyn, Grosswiler.