Braves rally, nip Dogs

The Braves were down, but they weren’t out.

Despite trailing by as many as 17 points in the second half, Flathead stormed back against visiting Whitefish in the waning seconds of the game.

With his team trailing by two points, Flathead senior Matthew Tokarz took a handoff from a screen and pulled up from 30 feet, burying a 3-pointer with four seconds on the clock to give the Braves a 65-64 nonconference basketball victory over Whitefish on Tuesday night.

“We had it set up for me to do that,” Tokarz said. “I’ve ran that so many times and I haven’t seen it gone through. This time I knew I had to put it through for my team. It came off, felt perfect. I just watched it go through the hoop.

“I’ve hit it from there and deeper before. I just had to trust myself.”

The lead was Flathead’s first since 3:47 in the first quarter and it was Tokarz’s first bucket from the field all night.

“It’s good for him,” Flathead coach Fred Febach said. “For his last regular season home game as a senior, to finish it off like that is pretty sweet.”

The game belonged to Whitefish (10-7 overall) for most of the night, with the Bulldogs controlling pace and forcing turnovers that led to easy baskets. The Bulldogs went on a 13-3 run to start the second quarter that opened their lead to 14 points and they led by as much as 17 with 5:11 left in the third quarter.

Momentum changed in a flash, when Flathead reserve guard Matt Quist picked off a pass on the Whitefish end and streaked unopposed to the other end of the court for a two-handed slam. The dunk sent the previously demur crowd to its feet and changed the flow of the game.

From that point, Flathead (10-6) closed the third quarter on a 13-3 run to cut the Whitefish lead to seven points. The Braves whittled the lead to four points with three minutes to play and finally to two with a putback off a missed free throw from Adam Bradley.

“We said they were going to go on a run, they did and we didn’t stop it,” Whitefish coach Mark Casazza said.

“They got fired up. The guys played hard, they battled the whole game. They made too many mental mistakes down the stretch ... (Flathead) is physical. They’re hard to box out. We gave up too many rebounds and too many second-chance opportunities.”

Shea Schroeder and Garth West each had 15 points to lead Flathead, while Quist scored 14. Tokarz finished with four points. Schroeder also finished with a game-high nine rebounds before fouling out.

Logan Harwood scored a game-high 22 to lead Whitefish, including 16 in the first half. Art Doorn and Cooper Olson each scored 12 for the Bulldogs.

Flathead heads to Helena for a two-game set with Helena High on Friday and Capital on Saturday.

Whitefish hosts Polson on Saturday.

Whitefish 15 27 12 10 — 64

Flathead 11 17 19 18 — 65

WHITEFISH — Logan Harwood 9-11 4-7 22, Jace Kalbfleisch 4-5 0-1 8, Art Doorn 4-11 1-3 12, Cooper Olson 3-3 0-0 8, Keaton Nicholson 4-7 4-5 12, Jake May 1-4 0-0 2. Totals: 25-45 9-16 64.

FLATHEAD — Blaine Newman 2-12 0-0 6, Matthew Tokarz 1-3 1-2 4, Chandler Escalante 2-5 0-2 6, Shea Schroeder 6-12 3-6 15, Garth West 7-9 1-3 15, Matt Quist 7-10 0-0 14, Adam Bradley 1-2 3-4 5. Totals: 26-54 8-17 65.

3-pointers — Whitefish 5-12 (Doorn 3, Olson 2), Flathead 5-20 (Escalante 2, Newman 2, Tokarz); Rebounds — Whitefish 20 (Kalbfleisch 5), Flathead 34 (Schroeder 9); Assists — Whitefish 10 (Harwood 4), Flathead 14 (Newman 3); Blocks — Whitefish 1 (Kalbfleisch), Flathead 1 (Newman); Steals — Whitefish 13 (Harwood 5), Flathead (Tokarz 3); Fouls — Whitefish 16, Flathead 18; Technical fouls — none; Fouled out — EJ Havens, Schroeder.