Glacier, FHS ready for state
When the Glacier boys take the court on Thursday at the Class AA state tournament in Bozeman, they’ll share the court with a team all too familiar with the underdog role.
The Wolfpack, which finished the season 16-3 and clinched the Western AA regular season championship, will be taking on the giant killers of Great Falls High, a team that had lost its last 10 games against AA competition before an improbable upset of Billings Skyview sent the Bison to Bozeman.
“They’ve done it once,” Glacier coach Mark Harkins said. “That should give them a ton of momentum going into the state tournament. I think they’ll be playing with a lot of confidence.”
Glacier, which is 0-6 in three previous trips to the state tournament, won’t overlook the 7-14 Bison in the first round.
“I think they’ll be playing real loose because again they’ll still be going for an upset,” Harkins said. “Sometimes it’s a lot easier to play from the underdog role. That’s definitely something we need to be aware of.”
The Wolfpack has had a week to heal up entering the tournament. By winning the conference title, Glacier avoided the potentially dangerous play-in round.
“That definitely gave us a chance to heal up, we came out of the Flathead game a little banged up,” Harkins said.
In order to avoid any rust, the Pack has been working on its fundamentals and shooting in the break, also trying to focus on the different style of tournament play.
“We have to be able to play great defense,” Harkins said.
“The state tournament is usually a defensive tournament. We need to be able to execute our offense in the half court. We’d like to get out and run but generally you see teams take away transition pretty well.”
Glacier played Great Falls back in December, beating the Bison 57-37 in Great Falls.
“You get an idea of who their athletes are, who their players are, what you have to watch out for for each individual kid,” Harkins said.
The Wolfpack shares the top of the bracket with Billings Senior, the East second seed, and crosstown rival Flathead, who returns to state for the third straight year.
“We’re looking forward to it,” Flathead coach Fred Febach said. “I think it’s really exciting that we play a team that we don’t normally see or play.”
The Braves, 11-10 this season, enter the tournament having won three of their last four games, including a 61-50 win over Missoula Sentinel that punched their ticket to the dance.
“We played some good games down the stretch,” Febach said.
“Certainly if you look at our season we played a lot of tough games. I think we’re battle-tested.”
The Braves will be playing a 12-9 Senior team that has done equally well after a lull at the start of February.
The Broncs like to run and will shoot from anywhere on the court, bringing with them a slew of tough matchups.
“They have more than one kid that can shoot so we have to make sure we cover everybody,” Febach said.
“We need to limit their possessions by making sure we play defense ad rebound, so we don’t give them extra looks.”
The tournament tips off this afternoon.
with the Flathead/Senior game at noon. Glacier will play Great Falls afterward.