Girls Basketball: Flathead slays Knights

The Flathead Bravettes will host a playoff game for the first time since 2009 after beating Missoula Hellgate 58-36 Tuesday at Flathead High School.

The win puts Flathead (5-6 Western AA, 10-8 overall) one and a half games ahead of Helena and Missoula Big Sky in the conference standings with one game remaining. The Bravettes hold the tiebreaker over both schools.

“It’s a long time coming,” Flathead senior Emily Russell said. “We’re really excited. It’s been our goal all season and now we’re one step away from state.”

Wreaking havoc in the backcourt with its full-court press, Flathead stormed out to a 17-0 lead before Hellgate (0-11, 1-18) finally got on the board with 16 seconds remaining in the first quarter. The Bravettes forced five turnovers in the opening quarter, including three steals in the backcourt by senior guard Dani Davis that led to easy baskets.

“We wanted to put pressure on them,” Flathead coach Karly Tait said. “We knew that they might be susceptible to turnovers and we felt that we could bring some intensity by putting pressure on them right away.”

Hellgate recovered in the second quarter, knocking down three 3-pointers and cutting their deficit to 29-18. That momentum looked as if it had spilled into the third quarter as the Knights scored the first three points after halftime, but Flathead ripped off a 15-1 run to take a commanding 22-point lead. Russell and Emma Andrews each scored five points in the frame and center Jenessa Heine added three points from the free-throw line.

“The second quarter we relaxed and let them come back a little bit,” Davis said. “The third quarter we were just like, ‘we can’t let them back in,’ and we came back hard.”

Tait said Hellgate was due for a run in the second quarter.

“After having such a great start, those things sometimes level out,” she said. “We knew they weren’t going to stay on 2 (points) the whole game, so they were going to go on some sort of run. We came out hard in the third quarter and went on a run ourselves and just kind of put it away.”

The Bravettes were dominant on the glass thanks to center Jenessa Heine, who recorded a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Russell added seven rebounds and Flathead had a 43-25 advantage as a team.

Andrews scored 13 points and Russell finished with 11.

Kylie McWilliams, who was 2 of 3 from three-point range, led Hellgate with nine points.

Flathead concludes the regular season at Glacier on Thursday before hosting a playoff game the following week.

“It’s really awesome for the program and the girls are excited,” Tait said of clinching a home playoff game. “It’s a better chance for us to get to the state tournament.”

Flathead’s last state tournament appearance was in 2008.

Hellgate216414—36

Flathead19101514—58

HELLGATE - Kylie McWilliams 3-5 1-2 9, Lexi Duce 3-10 1-2 7, Darby Henthorn 2-8 0-0 5, Emma Wiese 2-4 0-0 4, Mckenna Gagner 1-1 1-2 4, Claire Hinther 1-4 0-2 3, Hydee Wilson 0-4 2-4 2, Makaya Resnar 1-3 0-0 2, Rachel Martens 0-1 0-0 0, Kara Hogan 0-0 0-0 0, Haley Glassy 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 13-40 5-12 36.

FLATHEAD - Jenessa Heine 5-10 4-6 14, Emma Andrews 5-14 3-6 13, Emily Russell 5-10 1-1 11, Tana Fountain 3-6 0-0 7, Dani Davis 3-6 0-0 6, Jessika Abbrescia 2-5 0-0 4, Ronalae Rogers 1-2 0-1 2, Amber Lucas 0-0 1-2 1, Becca Marshall 0-0 0-0 0, Paige Birky 0-1 0-0 0, Toree Cano 0-0 0-0 0, Steph Karolak 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 22-55 9-16 58.

3-point goals - Hellgate 5-13 (McWilliams 2), Flathead 1-2 (Fountain). Rebounds - Hellgate 25 (Duce 5, Henthorn 3, McWilliams 3, Gagner 3), Flathead 43 (Heine 10, Russell 7). Assists - Hellgate 3 (Henthorn, Hinther, McWilliams), Flathead 8 (Davis 3, Abbrescia 3). Blocks - Hellgate 3 (Duce, Martens, Resnar), Flathead 0. Steals - Hellgate 6 (McWilliams 2), Flathead 13 (Davis 4, Andrews 3, Heine 3). Fouls - Hellgate 14, Flathead 11. Turnovers - Hellgate 21, Flathead 9. Technical fouls - Flathead. Fouled out - none.