Flathead knocks off Sentinel in boys Western AA basketball

Flathead kicked off Western AA boys basketball play Thursday night with an impressive 49-45 home victory over Missoula Sentinel.

The Braves (4-2) trailed 26-25 at the half and used a big fourth quarter to come out on top.

George Sherwood led Flathead's attack with 18 points. Matt McLean was next with nine.

Sentinel's Riley King led all scorers with 23 points.

"Honestly, some of the stats look pretty good for us," Flathead coach Fred Febach said.

"The big stat for us ... we only turned it over 11 times. They turned it over 19. That allowed us more opportunities to score."

Febach said Sentinel was the preseason pick as the top team in Western AA.

"George Sherwood had his usual nice game," Febach said. "He rebounded well, was matched up with King most of the night.

"Three guys who really stepped up were Shea Schroder, Austin Jones and Chris Cronk. They did a lot of the little things you need to do to win games. All three of those guys played quality minutes and made some real positive contributions for us."

Flathead plays at Missoula Big Sky on Saturday.

Missoula Sentinel 8 18 8 11 - 45

Flathead 12 13 8 16 - 49

MISSOULA SENTINEL - Jason Neibergs 0 1-2 1, Alec Bray 2 2-2 6, Brad Corntassel 2 0-0 5, Derek Colberg 1 0-0 3, Riley King 8 6-9 23, Austin Violette 0 0-0 0, Sam Hanich 0 0-0 0, Nate Jewett 3 1-2 7. Totals 16 10-15 45.

FLATHEAD - Chris Cronk 0 0-1 0, Austin Jones 0 4-6 4, Matt McLean 3 3-6 9, Shea Schroeder 1 5-9 7, George Sherwood 7 3-4 18, Drew Crosby 0 0-2 0, Nick James 1 0-0 2, Al Michael Olszewski 1 1-1 3, Garth West 3 0-0 6. Totals 16 16-29 49.

3-point goals - Sentinel 3 (Corntassel, Colberg, King), Flathead 1 (Sherwood). Total fouls - Sentinel 25, Flathead 16. Fouled out - Jewett. Rebounding - Sentinel 27 (King 6), Flathead 27 (Sherwood 6).

Glacier 64,

Missoula Big Sky 61

Kyle Griffith tallied 30 points and Ryan Edwards turned in a double-double with 13 rebounds and 10 points as Glacier opened Western AA play with a three-point home victory.

Glacier led by as many at 10 points in the fourth quarter.

Glacier (4-1, 1-0) outrebounded Big Sky 36-31.

"Again, our pressure defense," Glacier coach Mark Harkins said of the key to the game. "We forced 23 turnovers. I thought that was pretty good."

Glacier led 19-13 and 36-35 after the first two quarters.

Evan Epperly helped the Glacier cause with 10 points.

Austin Lindquist topped Big Sky (0-6, 0-1) with 19 points.

"Credit goes to our kids," Harkins said. "They played hard and made some plays when they needed to down the stretch."

Glacier plays at Missoula Sentinel on Saturday.

Missoula Big Sky 13 22 12 14 - 61

Glacier 19 17 15 13 - 64

MISSOULA BIG SKY - Jay Owens 3-6 2-3 9, Cole Baker 2-7 1-4 6, Tyler Thornock 4-7 6-7 14, Ryan Coster 0-3 1-1 1, Nico Graham 1-1 0-0 2, Austin Linquist 6-10 7-7 19, Trace Tinkle 1-4 5-6 7, Ryan Stemple 1-1 0-2 3. Totals: 18-39 22-30 61.

GLACIER - Kyle Griffith 11-20 5-10 30, Evan Epperly 3-9 3-7 10, Colton Harkins 1-7 0-0 3, Sean Peters 2-5 0-0 4, Ryan Edwards 3-6 4-4 10, Andy Boyer 0-3 0-1 0, Logan Iverson 1-6 1-2 3, Matt Peters 0-0 0-2 0, Karl Hellwig 2-3 0-0 2. Totals: 25-59 13-26 64.

3-point goals: Owens, Baker, Ryan; Griffith (3), Epperly, Harkins; Team fouls: Big Sky 23, Glacier 26; Fouled out: Thornock.

Columbia Falls 53, Bigfork 47

COLUMBIA FALLS - Austin Barth scored 14 points and pulled down 14 rebounds as the Columbia Falls Wildcats outlasted visiting Bigfork in a nonconference matchup.

Parker Johnson added 15 points for Columbia Falls (4-2), including shooting 7-for-7 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.

"Our kids did not play very well offensively. I thought Bigfork (5-2) gave us some problems. (The Vikings) did a great job making us make some bad decisions," said Columbia Falls coach Cary Finberg.

"But I'm proud of our kids for sticking with it and finding a way to get a win against a quality team," he added.

"I thought Parker hit some big free throws and Austin controlled the game rebounding the ball," he said.

"It was a great game. I thought both teams played hard. They just made a few more plays than we did," said Bigfork coach Kurt Paulson.

"I thought Austin Barth really stepped up and made some key buckets. We just had a hard time stopping him," Paulson said.

"I was proud of my kids, how they battled. Columbia Falls is a tough place to play. (The Vikings) are playing really hard and that's all you can ask for," he added.

Paulson complimented the efforts of Dillon Fraley as well as Cody Dopps and Ian Lorang.

Dopps paced the Vikings with 16 points and Lorang added 13.

Columbia Falls plays host Saturday to Polson while Bigfork will play host tonight to Troy.

Bigfork 12 10 12 13 - 47

Columbia Falls 7 14 11 21 - 53

Bigfork - Austin Jordt 5, Ian Lorang 13, Chris Landon 7, Cody Dopps 16, Jackson Boese 4, Dillon Fraley 2.

Columbai Falls - Alex Presnell 7, Luke Kazlauskas 3, Anthony Correa 5, Parker Johnson 15, Brian Marcille 6, Austin Barth 14, Jared Trinastich 3.

Polson 79, Loyola 53

MISSOULA - The Pirates scored 28 points in the first quarter and never looked back as they cruised to a nonconference win over Loyola.

Four Pirates scored in double figures - Cody Fischer had 20, Vince DiGiallonardo contributed 19, Zach Camel 14 and Tyler Krell 11.

Polson 28 14 17 20 - 79

Loyola 12 14 13 14 - 53

POLSON - Tyler Krell 11, Vince DiGiallonardo19, Will Davey 3, Ian Laimbeer 5, Zach Camel 14, Cody Fischer 20, Cedric Smith 3, Hayden Congdon 2, Riley Sampson 2.

LOYOLA - Josh Gilligan 16, Andrew Sopko 2, J.T. Anderson 8, Matt McHugh 2, Josh Janssen 15, Forrest Cooper 9, Tony Madsen 1.