Griffith lifts Glacier

Opposing teams used to know exactly who Glacier’s go-to scorer was when the game was on the line.

This season, it’s not that easy, but on Thursday Trey Griffith made sure his name gets mentioned from now on.

The 5-foot-9 junior buried back-to-back 3-pointers late in the fourth quarter that put the Wolfpack ahead for good as Glacier saved its best scoring for last, defeating Missoula Big Sky 52-44 in a Western AA boys basketball game at Glacier High.

“Trey stepped up tonight and had a huge game for us in the fourth quarter and hit some big threes there,” Glacier coach Mark Harkins said. “What I like about this team is every night it’s somebody different ... We’re getting contributions from everybody.”

Glacier (5-3 overall and 1-1 in conference) got 12 points and 12 rebounds from Shay Smithwick-Hann and eight fourth-quarter points from Grahm Schmaltz. The Wolfpack matched its entire first-half score in the fourth quarter with 22 points.

With the game tied at 40-all with just over four minutes left, Griffith did his best Ben Cutler impression with some late-game heroics. His first of two deep shots broke the tie in a scene that was reminiscent of last season when the Wolfpack could rely on any number of clutch baskets from their senior leader Cutler.

But with the sharpshooter graduated, Harkins has left it up for audition, and the leading role went to Griffith on this night.

Big Sky scored two quick baskets to take a fleeting 44-43 lead as, moments later, Griffith caught a swing pass and drained his second trey, making it 46-44 with 2:11 left. If that wasn’t enough, Griffith came out of a timeout a minute later and grabbed a steal and dished to Schmaltz, who took the foul and made both free throws.

From there, Big Sky’s (0-8) hope of breaking their winless streak was lost.

“We had our chances, just credit Glacier. They hit a couple huge shots,” Big Sky coach Josh Laslovich said. “Coach Harkins does a great job with Glacier, they get things done when it counts and they did tonight. More than us making a lot of mistakes late in the game, I felt like they created some things and once again credit to them for hitting the shots.”

Griffith finished with nine points and Logan Quay added five points and six rebounds for Glacier, who lost starter Connor Fuller for the remainder of the game early in the second quarter to an ankle injury.

“I told the boys when we came in here I was very, very happy with that win,” Harkins said.

“It wasn’t pretty but any time you play Big Sky, they are so good defensively and they’re going to try and disrupt you out of your rhythm and they really are good at doing that.”

“You know, 52-44 is a good score for us,” Laslovich said.

“We’d rather have the 52, but Glacier can get up and down. We’ll go back and keep working at that. We’re going to get some wins here. We’re right there with some of the better teams in our conference, so I’m proud of our guys.”

The Wolfpack have a tough nonconference test next Friday at home against undefeated Columbia Falls (9-0) at 8 p.m.

Missoula Big Sky    6    13    13    12    —    44

Glacier    9    13    8    22    —    52

BIG SKY (0-8) — Drew Owens 4 0-2 11, Ryan Devlin 4 2-2 11, Jordan Schafer 6 0-0 12, Jason Neibergs 1 0-0 2, Ed Apostal 3 0-1 6, Eric Deeault 1 0-0 2, Devin Nooney 0 0-0 0, Mitch Colyer 0 0-0 0, Dan Miller 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 2-5 44.

GLACIER (5-3) — Bryan Chery 2 0-0 5, Grahm Schmaltz 2 3-6 8, Freddie Blodnick 2 0-0 5, Colter Hanson 2 0-2 4, Shay Smithwick-Hann 4 4-4 12, Connor Fuller 1 0-0 2, Mario Venturini 1 0-0 2, Logan Quay 2 1-1 5, Trey Griffith 3 0-0 9, Wiley Fusaro 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 8-13 52

3-point goals — Big Sky 4 (Owens 3, Devlin), Glacier 6 (Griffith 3, Blodnick, Schmaltz, Chery); Team rebounds — Big Sky 25 (Devlin 5, Deneault 4), Glacier 30 (Smithwick-Hann 12, Quay 6); Team turnovers — Big Sky 12, Glacier 12; Team fouls — Big Sky 12, Glacier 11; Fouled out — None.