Sherwood, Braves sink Rustlers
The loud celebration echoed out the Braves' locker room and up the stairs into Flathead High.
A smiling fan dressed in orange and black turned to the person next to her as they walked outside and remarked, "They're just a little bit happy, huh?"
Happy indeed.
It may be just January, but beating the two-time defending state champs for the first time in a long time is a nice New Year's resolution come true.
The Braves dealt Great Falls C.M. Russell its first loss of the season, defeating the Rustlers 55-53 in a spirited Class AA nonconference boys basketball game on Friday night.
With the Rustlers leading by one point with less than 10 seconds remaining, senior Joe Pistorese snaked around defenders in the key and found teammate George Sherwood under the basket.
Sherwood, who sat the bench for almost the entire third quarter because of foul trouble, was wide awake and banked in the game-winner while drawing the foul with 2.2 seconds left.
After Sherwood finished the old fashioned three-point play with the free throw, CMR threw up a hopeless Hail Mary shot as the final horn sounded and the Flathead student section stormed the court. That's where the Braves began their celebrating.
"Amazing. It's big for us," said Sherwood, who finished with a game-high 17 points. "Nothing really better than that, send a big ripple through the state. Right now I think they're number one in the state and to get that confidence underneath us it feels like we can beat anyone right now."
"It means a lot," Pistorese said of the victory. "We knew what we were up against when we came into it, so everybody was pretty pumped up before the game."
The exciting win over CMR was Flathead's first since Jan. 2008, and snapped a string of lopsided losses the Braves have had against their Eastern AA foe ever since. Last season, CMR trounced the Braves 76-29 in Great Falls and then won big again, 62-37 in the opening round of the AA state basketball tournament.
"That's pretty sweet. It's great to beat a team like that," Flathead head coach Fred Febach said.
"It's going to basically reinforce the fact that what we're doing is good for us, in our practice sessions, what we are emphasizing and what we are working on."
But up until the final basket, Friday's finish was about as predictable as a coin toss.
After a monster 21-point third quarter that put the win back in reach, Flathead went back and forth with CMR, exchanging the lead seven times in the fourth. Senior Mike VanArendonk had four of his eight points in the final minutes and a streaking Ian Gillespie scored off a Sherwood steal-and-assist to put the Braves up 52-47 with 1:53 left. But CMR clamped down defensively and regained the lead with roughly a minute to go and looked poised to improve to 6-0 on the season.
"It was pretty hectic," Pistorese said of the final minute. "We tried to keep our composure as much as possible but I mean it's hard when the crowd's going crazy. I guess we did a pretty good job, though, because we came out on top."
Pistorese finished with 15 points, seven assists and four rebounds, Gillespie had 10 points and Flathead improved to 2-2 overall. CMR fell to 5-1.
Sitting in the coaches room after the game, with almost nothing left of his voice, Febach emphasized the team's strong defense that kept the Braves alive while the offense floundered at first. The words ‘Winner's mentality' were written on the team's board underneath a list of goals for the year.
So far, so good.
"The kids played with confidence. They didn't panic," Febach said. "A couple times, CMR made runs, got leads but we just fought through it. And I cannot - cannot - thank my kids coming off the bench enough for the contributions they made. They're not just subs, they're players and that's what they did for us tonight, they played."
Flathead travels to Whitefish today for a 6 p.m. game.
C.M.Russell 9 14 13 17 - 53
Flathead 8 8 21 18 - 55
C.M.RUSSELL - Kurtis Parsons 4 0-1 8, Tyler Stanich 5 6-6 16, Isaiah Collins 0 1-2 1, Cody Clausen 4 2-3 10, Gavin Hagfors 3 0-4 6, Russ Morin 3 4-9 10, Bryan Durocher 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 13-25 51
FLATHEAD - Mike VanArendonk 4 0-0 8, Matt McLean 1 0-2 3, Ian Gillespie 4 0-1 10, Joe Pistorese 5 4-6 15, George Sherwood 6 4-6 17, Scotty Keller 1 0-2 2, Garth West 0 0-1 0. Totals 21 8-18 55
3-pointers - CMR 0, Flathead 5 (Gillespie 2, Sherwood, Pistorese, McLean); Rebounds - CMR 41 (Clausen 10, Stanich 6, Parsons 6), Flathead 25 (Pistorese 4, Keller 4); Turnovers - CMR 19, Flathead 15; Fouls - CMR 18, Flathead 18; Fouled out - Keller.