Wolfpack bites Bengals

There was no need to hold your breath this time.

Colter Hanson and the Glacier Wolfpack took care of business early on and settled into a drama-free fourth quarter for once.

The 6-foot-3 junior scored 13 of his career-high 19 points in the first half and Glacier won its third game in a row, beating Helena High 58-43 in Western AA boys basketball at Glacier High on Friday night.

With three games left in the regular season, the Wolfpack sit 6-3 in conference and 12-5 overall and is tied with today’s foe, Helena Capital (6-3, 10-7), for second place. Glacier hosts Capital at 2:30 p.m.

“That really helps us a lot. We needed that one,” Glacier coach Mark Harkins said of Friday’s win. “We didn’t turn the ball over very much, we ran our offense better, we had a huge night out of Colter — that was fantastic to see him step up like that — and that just goes with what we’ve been saying all year, every night it’s somebody.”

In Helena on January 30, the Bengals snapped the Wolfpack’s five-game win streak, 56-46. Since then, Glacier has been in four straight nerve-racking roller coaster games — two that went into at least one overtime — that were decided by six points or fewer.

Not this time.

Shay Smithwick-Hann hit three 3-pointers en route to 17 points, Connor Fuller chipped in eight points, eight rebounds and the Wolfpack had its best defensive showing in league play this season, holding the Bengals to 18 points in the second half.

“I thought they outplayed us in every facet of the game tonight,” Helena coach Willie Schlepp said. “We didn’t play a very disciplined game tonight ... We did a lot of individual stuff and that’s the key, when you play against a good basketball team, you have to be a better team and tonight they were a better team than we were.”

If the word on Glacier is 3-point line or bust, then Friday became Exhibit A of why that isn’t exactly the case.

Glacier had only two treys in the first half and three in the second — senior Grahm Schmaltz hit two from behind the arc for six points.

The Wolfpack lead AA in 3-pointers, having made 124-of-326 (38 percent). Billings West is next with 116-of-320 (36 percent).

But on Friday, the Pack showed its strength in the paint. Hanson, whose previous career high was 12, had all 19 of his points within 10 feet of the hoop and Glacier used numerous second-chance baskets to build a six-point lead at halftime that grew to double-digits from there.

The closest Helena (4-5, 7-10) came was 35-29 in the opening minutes of the third quarter.

“We didn’t shoot that great, we shot 30 percent from behind the arc tonight, but we got a lot of stuff going to the rim,” Harkins said. “We talked about that. We shoot a lot of threes, but we can’t live and die by them. We have to be able to get the inside game or you’re going to have a cold night shooting and if you don’t have anything else it’s going to hurt you.”

Glacier forced 21 turnovers in the game.

“We’re doing some things pretty well right now,” Harkins said. “We have to keep getting better and hopefully we can get some momentum and peak at the right time.”

Helena High    12    13    6    12    —    43

Glacier    14    17    11    16    —    58

HELENA — Tyler Hulse 8 4-6 21, Josh Herrin 2 0-0 5, Adam Johnson 4 1-1 9, Justin Teegarden 0 2-2 2, Dylan Simac 1 2-2 4, Zack Hulse 1 0-0 2, Graham Bogumill 0 0-0 0, Logan Stahly 0 0-0 0, Tyler Wiedeman 0 0-0 0, Nate Hinrichs 0 0-0 0, Curtis Anderson 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 9-11 43.

GLACIER — Bryan Chery 0 1-4 1, Grahm Schmaltz 2 0-0 6, Marshal Boyland 1 0-0 2, Colter Hanson 9 1-3 19, Shay Smithwick-Hann 5 4-6 17, Logan Quay 1 2-2 4, Trey Griffith 0 1-2 1, Connor Fuller 4 0-0 8, Mario Venturini 0 0-0 0, Ryan Edwards 0 0-0 0, Wiley Fusaro 0 0-0 0, Freddie Blodnick 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 9-17 58.

3-point goals — Helena 2 (T. Hulse, Herrin), Glacier 5 (Smithwick-Hann 3, Schmaltz 2); Rebounds — Helena 33 (Johnson 14, T. Hulse 6), Glacier 29 (Fuller 8, Smithwick-Hann 6, Hanson 6); Turnovers — Helena 21, Glacier 12; Team fouls — Helena 17, Glacier 13; Fouled out — None.