Pack win in double OT

The Sentinel fan yelling “Pressssure!” as Connor Fuller and the Glacier Wolfpack took the court with four seconds left in double overtime must not have realized: This Glacier team knows pressure better than anyone.

With 4.4 seconds left and the Wolfpack trailing the top team in the West by one point, Fuller stepped to the free throw line, just like he had in his dreams.

“I’ve been practicing that since I’ve been little,” the senior guard said afterward. “Me and my dad would go to the junior high all the time and do the same situation; down by one, four seconds left, got to hit both free throws. And I came through today. It was awesome.”

Fuller sank the shots and the Spartans with two straight swishes, sealing the Wolfpack’s thrilling Western AA victory at 72-71 in double overtime at Glacier High on Tuesday night.

Fuller finished with 18 points, Grahm Schmaltz had four 3-pointers en route to 17 points and Shay Smithwick-Hann added 16 points and 10 rebounds for the battle-tested Wolfpack, which has played in two-straight overtime games and four overall this season, going 3-1 in that span.

“It seems like when we get into overtime, we just find a way to pull it out,” Schmaltz said. “That was a big conference win for us.”

And that looming pressure?

“We live for it. It’s sweet,” he said.

In a game that had seemingly every Glacier player hit a big shot or make a key play, Fuller was the final hero. With Sentinel leading 67-65 at 1:21, Fuller drained a 3-pointer and followed with a hardy lay-in after a Spartan basket just over a minute later.

Sentinel’s Kendal Maier earned a trip to the line and broke the Spartans’ scoring drought from the charity stripe, going 2-for-2 and making it 71-70 with 23 seconds left. Up to that point, Sentinel was 6-for-13 from the free throw line from the fourth quarter on.

With time winding down, Fuller drove to the basket again and earned the whistle. Sentinel coach Craig Matosich called a timeout and let the senior’s nerves feel the heat. Glacier coach Andy Fors, filling in for head coach Mark Harkins who missed the game due to a funeral, huddled the team together.

“I just said ‘Connor’s going to bury these two free throws for us here, so we don’t have to worry about anything else,’” Fors said. “And he stepped up and did it.”

“It never ceases to amaze me,” Fors added. “One kid steps up and then somebody else does. They all have nerves of steel.”

Before Fuller it was Schmaltz, who drove to the basket with 16 seconds left in the first overtime and tied the game. Before Schmaltz it was Logan Quay, who had his own nerveracking moment with 18 seconds left in regulation and made back-to-back free throws to tie it at 58-all and send it into the first overtime.

The list goes on. There wasn’t a Glacier player who didn’t have a hand in the heroics one way or another.

Afterward the thrilling win, the team’s first order of business was gathering in the locker room and calling their head coach and leaving him the good-news message.

The Wolfpack improved to 4-3 in conference and 10-5 overall. Glacier lost to the Spartans earlier this season, 61-53.

Sentinel’s Riley King made three of his seven 3-pointers to start the fourth quarter and give the Spartans a 9-0 run and a five-point lead. King finished with 27 points before fouling out in the final seconds. Ben Roberts had 16 and Kendal Maier added 13 for the Spartans, who now sit tied atop the West with a 5-2 conference record alongside Helena Capital.

“We had our chances. We didn’t execute a couple things, we didn’t make our free throws and ultimately it came back to haunt us,” Matosich said. “I mean you can only live so long doing that.”

As usual, 3-pointers were a deciding factor at Glacier. The Wolfpack drained 13 while Sentinel followed with nine.

The Wolfpack head to Missoula to play Big Sky on Friday.

Missoula Sentinel    24    7    10    17    5    8    — 71

Glacier    18    10    14    16    5    9    — 72

SENTINEL — Zack Wagenmann 5 1-1 11, Kendal Maier 4 4-7 13, Ben Roberts 6 3-4 16, Riley King 8 4-8 27, Connor Woodill 1 1-2 3, Trevor Olson 0 1-2 1, Fischer Worden 0 0-0 0, Robby King 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 14-24 71.

GLACIER — Shay Smithwick-Hann 6 2-2 16, Logan Quay 1 2-2 4, Grahm Schmaltz 6 1-2 17, Colter Hanson 1 1-2 3, Connor Fuller 6 3-3 18, Bryan Chery 3 0-0 9, Trey Griffith 1 2-2 5, Freddie Blodnick 0 0-0 0, Mario Venturini 0 0-0 0, Ryan Edwards 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 11-13 72

3-point goals — Sentinel 9 (Riley King 7, Maier, Roberts), Glacier 13 (Schmaltz 4, Fuller 3, Chery 3, Smithwick-Hann 2, Griffith); Rebounds — Sentinel 35 (Wagenmann 7, Maier 6, Woodill 6, Riley King 5), Glacier 30 (Smithwick-Hann 10, Hanson 5, Fuller 4); Turnovers — Sentinel 20, Glacier 16; Team fouls — Sentinel 15, Glacier 20; Fouled out — Riley King, Hanson.