No. 1 Hawks up first for Glacier

The Glacier girls haven’t received much of a welcome gift heading into their first Class AA state tournament this weekend. In their first game at the state level, the Pack will be squared off against undefeated and top-ranked Bozeman in front of the Hawks’ home crowd in the final game of the opening day.

The Wolfpack, who finished the season 12-8, got the nod by virtue of their play-in upset of Helena Capital on the road, earning an uphill battle along with a spot in the big dance.

“They’re very excited,” Glacier coach Kris Salonen said. “It’s new, it’s exciting. We’re hoping we can get there and definitely have a lot of fun. But, the ultimate goal is we’re going there to play basketball and prove that we’re supposed to be there, that we can compete at that level.”

Glacier left yesterday to get a feel for Montana State’s Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, a 6,000-seat arena that will be filled with local fans against the hometown Hawks, who are a perfect 20-0 this season.

“I think the biggest thing is we knew we needed to get them in the gym and let them at least see the atmosphere and what they’re walking into,” Salonen said.

The Glacier girls are back to full strength and have won two straight after breaking out of a late-season funk. To get ready for Bozeman, they’ve used their time in the last week to focus in on their half-court defense, looking to limit what the hot-shooting Hawks can do offensively.

“They shoot the ball very well, every one of them shoots 3s,” Salonen said. “We definitely want to have our help defense be in the right area, but we also want to make sure that we close out on their shooters and don’t give out those wide-open buckets.

“Where they’ve been so successful is they’ve taken a huge run on some teams. They’ll have a huge quarter. If we can somehow avoid them having a big quarter in the game, and defensively get some stops and give ourselves an opportunity to score the ball, I think we have a chance to be in the game.”

“This has been our ultimate goal all season. This is what we played those games for ... We’ve continually gotten better and better every week. We told them, ‘This is where you step up and play the best basketball you’ve ever played.’”