Streaking Wolfpack blast Big Sky
Glacier's Colter Hanson passes the ball away from Missoula Big Sky's Matt Ethridge after both players scrambled for the loose ball on the court floor in the first quarter of Tuesday's Class AA home game.
Glacier's Kyle Griffith lifts a shot of Missoula Big Sky's Matt Ethridge in the second half. Griffith scored a career high 17 points.
Four weeks and eight games ago, the woebegone Wolfpack was in a tailspin, losers of four-straight and unable to find that zeal on offense or defense.
But these days, the boys are soaring up the standings.
Glacier picked up its seventh win in a row - 79-49 over Missoula Big Sky on Thursday night - thanks to another dogged defensive performance and the highest point total in program history.
Senior Bryan Chery knocked down five 3-pointers en route to 21 points, sophomore Kyle Griffith scored a career-high 17 points and had six rebounds and the Wolfpack hiked its record to 10-6 overall and 6-2 in Western AA, tying them for second place with Missoula Sentinel.
"We're doing some nice things right now," Glacier head coach Mark Harkins said.
That wasn't the case last month, when the team fell to 3-6 overall and 0-2 in league after a 58-54 loss to Big Sky in Missoula. To see that group transform into this group raises one big question - what happened?
"A month ago we were still struggling to find out who we were," Harkins said. "We didn't have an identity."
Assistant coach Andy Fors pointed this out in the midst of an eventual five-game skid, and the coaching staff went back to the drawing board, Harkins said.
"We sat and talked and made our identity," the head coach said. "We're going to be a pressure defensive team and we're going to get after you. And we're going to try to play inside-out on offense. And once we figured out that's who we were, and we started to trust each other and know our roles, that's when we turned the corner I thought."
On Thursday, that was evident once again for any number of reasons: because Glacier had six players score at least six points, because after letting Big Sky get within 10 by halftime the Wolfpack outscored the Eagles 22-2 in the third quarter, because the tempo that Glacier looks most comfortable playing at is a tempo most track teams strive for.
"Offensively they put the ball in the hole and defensively they fly around and play really hard," Big Sky head coach Josh Laslovich said of Glacier. "We played their game and we obviously saw we can't play their game."
He added, "I thought more than anything we need to learn from them. They play really hard all the time and it wears you down after awhile. Mark's got a good thing going here."
The 79 points scored Thursday was Glacier's highest total mark by one. The Wolfpack has scored 78 twice before, in a one-point win over Whitefish on Jan. 16, 2008, and in a 78-65 win over Flathead on Feb. 3, 2009.
"This was our best offensive game yet," Kyle Griffith said. "We came out good but our defense wasn't so good so we had to step it up in the second half."
Glacier made 32 of 57 shots (56 percent) from the floor and forced 31 turnovers. Senior Trey Griffith fueled the front-court pressure with nine steals and chipped in six points.
Sophomore Ryan Edwards scored 10 points and freshman Evan Epperly and sophomore Logan Iverson each added seven.
"I still think we can be better, I guess that's the coach in me just always looking for improvement," Harkins said. "But yeah, I'm very pleased with what they've done the last couple games."
With four games left in the regular season, Glacier's next test is in Helena, starting with next Friday at Capital and then that Saturday against Helena High.
Missoula Big Sky 18 14 2 15 - 49
Glacier 26 16 22 15 - 79
BIG SKY - RJ LaValley 1 0-0 3, Cole Baker 3 2-4 8, Jason Neibergs 3 0-0 6, Tyler Thornock 3 3-3 9, Austin Lindquist 2 0-0 4, Aaron Koster 6 2-5 14, Matt Ethridge 0 5-8 5. Totals 18 12-20 49.
GLACIER - Bryan Chery 8 0-0 21, Trey Griffith 2 2-4 6, Kyle Griffith 8 1-2 17, Colton Harkins 2 0-0 4, Evan Epperly 3 1-2 7, Jacob Leininger 1 0-0 2, Sean Peters 2 0-0 4, Logan Iverson 2 3-4 7, Brandon Doty 0 1-2 1, Ryan Edwards 4 2-2 10. Totals 32 10-16 79.
3-pointers - Big Sky 1 (LaValley), Glacier 5 (Chery 5); Rebounds - Big Sky 28 (Ethridge 7, Koster 6, Baker 5), Glacier 19 (K. Griffith 6, Colter Hanson 4, Leininger 3), Turnovers - Big Sky 31, Glacier 9; Steals - Big Sky 4 (Koster 2), Glacier 21 (T. Griffith 9, Hanson 3, Epperly 3); Fouls - Big Sky 18, Glacier 16; Fouled out - None.