Prep basketball: Efficient Spartans roll Pack

Calm, quick and efficient - the Spartans came and went.

The Sentinel boys picked up their first win of the season in their first game of 2011, defeating Glacier 51-34 in a Western AA conference basketball game on Tuesday night.

It's not often a team outmaneuvers and out-shoots the Wolfpack at home, but Sentinel did just that.

Junior Riley King sank three 3-pointers en route to 17 points, Fischer Worden added 10 points and the Spartans (1-5 overall, 1-0 in conference) led from start to finish.

"I'm very pleased with the way our kids played. We played hard. We played smart," Sentinel coach Craig Matosich said. "To use a word that we use at practice quite a bit, we were ‘efficient,' pretty much in all phases: defensively, offensively."

Sentinel had only 10 fouls in the game, shot 16-for-38 from the floor and kept Glacier off-balance offensively throughout a quick game that lasted just over an hour.

It felt longer than that for the Wolfpack. Glacier struggled on offense for the second-straight game, going 14-for-40 from the floor and managing double-figures in only the third when senior Bryan Chery brought the 'Pack within four points only to see the Spartans jump back ahead 39-27 by quarter's end.

"I didn't think we played very well tonight," Glacier coach Mark Harkins said. "After the game we challenged our guys on a couple things, mental toughness being one. We had a lot of missed opportunities offensively tonight where we missed point-blank shots and that's the second game that's happened."

Chery was everything for Glacier offensively. The 5-foot-9 guard finished with half the Wolfpack's total scoring, 17 points, but left midway through the fourth quarter with an injury.

"We need right now at this point some guys to step up and become leaders for us," Harkins said. "We need to find an identity. We don't have that yet, and that's OK. We will. The season's still early and we have a lot of games yet to play. We want to be playing well by the end of February and we've known that there was going to be some growing pains early."

The defending Western AA champs, Sentinel has had similar pains so far this season. Coming into Tuesday, the Spartans had averaged only 44 points on offense and allowed roughly 50 on average. King was the difference this game. Sentinel, which lost in double overtime 72-71 the last time they played at Glacier last February, sank four-straight 3-pointers to start the game. Two were by King, who finished with eight of the Spartan's 14 first-quarter points.

"They were a tough matchup for us," Harkins said. "We just have to keep working. We can't feel sorry for ourselves. We can't hang our heads."

Glacier hosts Polson on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Sentinel 14 8 17 12 - 51

Glacier 7 8 12 7 - 34

MISSOULA SENTINEL - Zack Murphy 1 0-0 2, Alec Bray 1 4-6 6, Brad Corntassel 1 2-2 5, Nate Jewett 3 0-1 6, Riley King 5 4-6 17, Fischer Worden 4 2-3 10, Derek Colberg 1 2-2 5. Totals 16 14-20 51.

GLACIER - Bryan Chery 7 1-2 17, Kyle Griffith 1 0-0 2, Colter Harkins 1 0-0 3, Jacob Leininger 1 0-0 2, Marshall Boyland 1 0-0 2, Colter Hanson 2 0-0 4, Ryan Edwards 1 2-2 4. Totals 14 3-4 34.

3-pointers - Sentinel 5 (King 3, Colberg, Corntassell), Glacier 3 (Chery 2, Harkins); Rebounds - Sentinel 25 (King 8, Corntassel 3, Jewett 3), Glacier 23 (Boyland 4, Edwards 4, Leininger 3); Turnovers - Sentinel 12, Glacier 15; Steals - Sentinel 9 (Corntassell 3, King 2, Murphy 2), Glacier 9 (T.Griffith 4, Boyland 2); Fouls - Sentinel 10, Glacier 15; Fouled out - None.

Bigfork 32,

Mission 19

BIGFORK - Travis Knoll scored 10 points, Christian Ker had eight and the Vikings picked up their fifth win of the season.

Carter Sorensen added five points and Jackson Boese had four for Bigfork (5-2).

The Vikes host Plains on Friday.

Mission 6 1 9 3 - 19

Bigfork 9 5 12 6 - 32

MISSION - Austin Durglo 2, Dylan Evans 5, Stuart Grant 8, Spencer Ahlborn 2, Nikko Alexander 1, Josh Durglo 1.

Bigfork - Carter Sorensen 5, Ian Lorang 2, Evan Jordt 1, Travis Knoll 10, Christian Ker 8, Jackson Boese 4, Dillon Fraley 2.

Girls

Sentinel 40,

Glacier 39

MISSOULA - Baylee Quay scored nine points and Ashlee Waggener had eight in a losing effort Tuesday for the Glacier Wolfpack girls basketball team.

"Great game, though," said Glacier coach Kris Salonen. "We played catch-up, but we battled back in it," she said.

The Wolfpack trailed 23-18 at half and 33-28 after three quarters.

Kate Patenaude put Sentinel up 40-34 with 1:42 to go, but Waggener banked home a 3-pointer with 49 seconds left to cut the lead to 40-37.

Glacier forced a turnover at the other end, then got a layup from Hughes with 24 seconds to go.

Down 40-39 with seven seconds remaining, the Wolfpack had the ball under the basket. It scrambled to get the ball in, but the shot rolled off and the game ended with a scrum for the rebound.

"This was a great opportunity for us to come out of Christmas break and know we can compete with one of the top teams in our league," Salonen said.

The Wolfpack (3-3 overall, 0-1 in conference) will play host at 4 p.m. Saturday to Polson.

Glacier 7 11 10 11 - 39

Sentinel 11 12 10 7 - 40

Glacier - Ashlee Waggener 8, Patty Hughes 4, Baylee Quay 9, Paige Latimer 4, Nicole Heavirland 4, Cassidy Hashley 6, Cami Mathison 2, Rachel Chery 2. Totals 15-39 7-7 39.

Sentinel - McCall Hasquet 3, Amanda Davis 10, D.J. Reinhardt 13, Kate Patenaude 4, Olivia Roberts 3, Kennedy Fulbright 1-8 2, Liz Harper 5. Totals 16-52 8-14 40.

3-point goals - Glacier 2-6 (Waggener 2), Sentinel 0-10. Rebounds - Glacier 32 (Hughes 5, Hashley 5), Sentinel 31 (Reinhardt 7). Fouls - Glacier 15, Sentinel 9. Blocks - Glacier 1 (Latimer). Steals - Glacier 7 (3 with 2), Sentinel 9 (3 with 2). Turnovers - Glacier 21, Sentinel 14.

Bigfork 51, Mission 9

BIGFORK - Caitlin Charlebois had 17 points and four assists and Taylor Peck added 13 points as the Bigfork Valkyries blew past St. Ignatius, 51-9 in a girls basketball matchup on Tuesday.

Quinci Paine added six points and four rebounds to the Vals' effort.

Bigfork led 34-6 at half and 47-8 after three quarters.

"We kind of jumped all over them there," said Bigfork coach Mark Hansen of the first half.

"I thought we executed well and played really good defense," he said.

"Our defense played awfully well."

The Vals (5-1, 3-0) travel to Plains on Friday.

Mission 6 0 2 1 - 9

Bigfork 21 13 13 4 - 51

Mission - Kayla Mitchell 5, Stephanie Lewandowski 2, Breanna Steele 2.

Bigfork - Mallery Knoll 9, McKize Shults 2, Quinci Paine 6, Shelby Scoggins 2, Taylor Peck 13, Melissa Vanderveer 2, Caitlin Charlebois 17.