Capital clips Braves

That happened in a hurry.

The time between a slight Flathead lead and a large Helena Capital advantage was just about 2 1/2 minutes.

With 1:48 left in the third quarter on Friday, Flathead led the visiting Bruins by a point.

Forty-eight seconds into the fourth quarter, the Braves had fallen behind by 11. Capital, led by Matt Miller’s 21 points and nine rebounds, came away with a 51-41 victory and a season sweep of Flathead.

The loss dropped the Braves (9-7, 5-4) to third in Western AA.

Capital (10-7, 6-3) is now tied with Glacier (12-5, 6-3) for second place.

“Good night for them. Not so good for us,” said Flathead coach Fred Febach.

For Flathead, more bad news piled on as junior Joe Pistorese rolled his ankle right before half. He’s a game-time decision for today’s contest with Helena High.

The Braves got off to a great start — they were up 16-9 after the first quarter and 25-19 at the half.

“We had a really good first quarter. The second quarter, things turned a little bit. We got a little bit out of sync offensively — and in the third quarter, we really struggled,” Febach said.

“They got after us physically. They just flat out-physicalled us big time on the defensive end,” Febach said.

The Bruins, fueled by Miller’s 11 points, outscored the Braves 20-8 in the period.

“At halftime, we didn’t feel like we’d played poorly, but we thought we shot too many jump shots and maybe didn’t have the energy on defense that we needed,” said Bruin coach Guy Almquist.

“We’re not a great pressure team defensively, but we felt like we had to do it in the second half. We had to get some easy baskets somehow.

“Our kids did a good job of getting into the passing lanes, finishing the two-on-one and three-on-two fast breaks,” Almquist said.

“Once we got them down, they uncharacteristically took a lot of perimeter jump shots. They made us work so hard defensively in the first half, but in the second half they shot quicker and quicker,” he said.

“We got out of sync,” Febach said.

“Sometimes when things start to go wrong, you start looking at the scoreboard, thinking ‘I’ve got to make a play,’” he explained.

“You don’t necessarily have to make a play, you just have to run your stuff.

“We have to be able to fight through that and create some offense when kids are that aggressive. Credit goes to Capital. They realized right away when they got into us that we were going to have some problems offensively,” he said.

“On the defensive end, we needed to challenge more and I don’t think we did enough of that. We didn’t make (the shooter) earn the shot, didn’t make him earn his position on the floor,” Febach said.

The only blip on Capital’s rally was a technical foul midway through the third.

The Bruins were on a 6-0 run and had just tied the Braves at 25.

But Capital’s Trey Spirlin fouled Flathead’s Karl Ingram on a layup — then was called for a technical in the moments afterward.

That gave Ingram four free throws — and Flathead the ball out of bounds.

“That’s not a good play on our part. We have to learn from that,” Almquist said.

“We called a timeout and told the kids that we were making a run. This could stop it. This could stop our run. I thought we got right back in it. We didn’t let it affect us,” he said.

Ingram made all four shots to put the Braves up 29-25, but Flathead turned the ball over on the ensuing play.

Ingram scored all eight of Flathead’s points in the quarter and finished the game with 17 points and six rebounds. Jeremy Grosswiler added nine points and 11 rebounds.

The Braves, currently third in Western AA, face Helena High (7-10, 4-5) at 2:30 p.m.

“Helena will come after us. They’ll play more of a full-court game, but they’ll play physical and we’ll have to respond,” Febach said.

“But this team has been really good (at responding). If we stumble and don’t play well, we bounce back pretty good. I’m counting on them to bounce,” he said.

Capital     9     10     20     12 — 51

Flathead     16     9     8     8 — 41

Capital — Beau Berg 1 0-0 2, Tommy Peterson 1 1-2 3, Quinn Chamberlain 1 0-0 2, Chris Morrison 1 1-2 3, Matt Miller 8 3-4 21, A.J. Wilson 1 2-5 4, Josh Dirks 3 0-0 6, Trey Spirlin 4 1-4 10. Totals 20 8-17 51.

Flathead — Tanner Salois 1 0-0 3, Karl Ingram 6 4-5 17, Joe Pistorese 2 0-0 4, George Sherwood 2 2-2 6, Mike VanArendonk 1 0-0 2, Jeremy Grosswiler 4 1-2 9. Totals 16 7-9 41.

3-point goals: Capital 3 (Miller 2, Spirlin 1), Flathead 2 (Salois, Ingram). Total fouls: Capital 14, Flathead 14. Fouled out: Spirlin.