Glacier boys hold on down the stretch to beat Flathead

The gauntlet was thrown down.

With the clock running down and the Glacier boys salting away a 68-63 win over Flathead, the Wolfpack student section chanted, "This is our town."

But for all the exuberance as the game was ending, there was certainly an air of doubt throughout the night.

No. 4 Glacier escaped from Flathead gym on Thursday with the win after twice blowing double-digit leads, holding off a hard push by the Braves in the final four minutes of the game to grab its third conference win and sixth win in the crosstown series.

Flathead nearly erased a 12-point lead in the final four minutes, with seniors Matt McLean and George Sherwood leading the way. With 4:32 to play, and Flathead trailing 57-45, McLean popped open in the right corner and buried a 3-pointer, getting fouled in the process. After hitting the free throw, the Flathead gym, already electric, was in full swing as the Braves began their second big charge of the night.

Sherwood tried to close the deal, hitting a pair of free throws with 38 seconds remaining, then slicing down the baseline on the next possession to draw the Braves with two at 65-63.

But, needing to foul, the Braves took nearly 10 seconds to stop the clock after the layin and it was Sherwood drawing his fifth of the night, that made the foul. With Sherwood out, and Glacier's hottest shooter on the line, the Wolfpack was able to ice the game in the final seconds.

"(Flathead) played hard," Glacier coach Mark Harkins said. "We have to learn to sustain a lead. We got up and then we relaxed a bit and let them get back in. That's just a learning thing. That's why we play these games, to get better."

Fittingly, it was sophomore Evan Epperly that hit the game-ending free throws. Epperly was the driving force behind the Wolfpack offense all night, scoring 24 points and keying the two big runs the Pack had on the night.

With Glacier trailing 10-7 after a tough, defensive first quarter, Epperly took over in the second, cutting through the Braves defense and getting to the line. He scored 17 points in the second quarter alone and was the catalyst to the Pack's fast break, cutting in passing lanes for steals and kicking the ball out to a streaking teammate.

It was behind that aggressive play that Glacier jumped out to its biggest lead of the night, getting in front of the Braves 29-15 with 3:01 to play in the first half.

But Sherwood wasn't going to let the Braves fall flat. The senior, who led all scorers in Western AA going into the night, picked up his aggressiveness and scored eight straight points for the Braves, including twice getting fouled on layups and hitting a free throw to follow.

The Braves went on a 12-0 run over a minute and a half to close the second quarter, and would have taken all of the momentum into the break had Epperly not scored three of his own to give the Wolfpack a 32-27 lead at half.

The Braves quickly tied the game in the third period, but Glacier tightened up its zone defense late in the quarter and was able to get running, rallying off an 8-0 run in less than a minute, ending the quarter with a 48-43 lead.

In the fourth, the Wolfpack went to its bread and butter, tossing the ball down low to center Ryan Edwards. Edwards, who to that point had been held relatively quiet with seven points, began to exert his size, scoring 10 points in the quarter. With Edwards drawing all the attention down low, Glacier jumped out to its big lead before the strong close by Flathead.

"They know who to go to when they needed to," Flathead coach Fred Febach said of Glacier's 6-foot-10 center. "To our boys' credit, we did a nice job, a couple different times we were down double digits and we came back and made a game out of it."

Epperly's 24 points led all scorers, with Edwards finishing with 15 points and 15 rebounds. Kyle Griffith scored 14 points and Sean Peters chipped in 11 for the Pack.

Sherwood led the Braves with 22 points and McLean, who played most of the second half with four fouls, finished with 14.

The aggressive Wolfpack offense got the Braves in foul trouble early in the game, with four Flathead players finishing with at least four fouls. McLean picked up his fourth just three minutes into the second half and had to watch from the bench as the Pack built its big lead.

"He's our floor general," Febach said of McLean. "We have some kids that tried to stepped up and play, but his leadership and his basketball IQ is key for us. When he's not out there we have to kind of scramble a little bit. I thought that we did a good job in that. The game could have really gotten out of hand but the boys kept it close enough that we had a chance in the fourth quarter."

The teams meet again on Feb. 24 in the final regular season game for both teams.

"It's turned into such a fun rivalry," Harkins said. "In the last two years, we've had two overtime games. Tonight's game was really close the whole time. Both teams play so hard when they play, the crowds are awesome, it's a great atmosphere. It's a fun game."

As far as the immediate future, the Wolfpack (4-2 in Western AA, 10-3 overall) doesn't play until Tuesday at Missoula Sentinel. The Braves (2-3, 6-7) play Saturday at Hellgate.

Glacier 7 25 16 20 - 68

Flathead 10 17 16 20 - 63

GLACIER - Evan Epperly 7 9-12 24, Ryan Edwards 6 3-5 15, Kyle Griffith 5 4-4 14, Sean Peters 5 1-1 11, Logan Iverson 1 1-5 3, Andy Boyer 0 1-2 1, Colton Harkins 0 0-4 0. Totals: 24 19-29 68.

FLATHEAD - George Sherwood 8 5-9 22, Matt McLean 4 4-5 14, Matt Tokarz 3 0-0 7, Austin Jones 1 5-8 7, Shea Schroeder 2 2-6 6, Drew Crosby 1 0-0 3, Chris Cronk 1 0-0 2, Nick James 0 2-2 2, Garth West 0 0-1 0. Totals: 20 18-31 63.

3-point goals: McLean 2, Tokarz 1, Crosby 1, Sherwood 1, Epperly 1. Team fouls: Glacier 23, Flathead 22. Technical fouls: none. Fouled out: Peters, Sherwood.