Crosstown basketball: Chery bails out Wolfpack girls

With 6-foot-1 star center Cassi Hashley bottled up by Flathead’s suffocating defense, Glacier needed someone else to step up.

Hashley scored just six points through the first three quarters of Thursday’s crosstown girls basketball game and Flathead led by five with three minutes remaining in the defensive slugfest.

That’s when senior forward Rachel Chery answered the bell, scoring eight straight points and leading the Wolfpack to a 42-36 win in its final home game of the regular season.

First she found space along the baseline for a layup. Then she knocked down a pair of free throws. Her putback after a miss by guard Kirstyn Haugenoe put Glacier ahead 37-36 and her hook shot over Flathead forward Tana Fountain ensured the victory.

“They were squeezing Cassi, and Cassi’s our main player,” Chery said. “When she’s not on it’s hard to get rolling, but once we start figuring out different things for the offense it was pretty easy.”

The outcome had no impact on the conference standings as Glacier (15-4 overall, 8-3 Western AA) and Flathead (10-9, 5-7) were already locked into third and fourth place, respectively, but bragging rights were certainly on the line in Kalispell’s crosstown game, not to mention momentum heading into next week’s state tournament play-in games.

“We always like to beat Flathead,” Chery said before adding, “It’s always good to have a winning streak going into the playoffs and state to keep your confidence high.”

Chery finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds, both game-highs, while Hashley tailled 10 points and seven rebounds, down from her averages of 15.3 points and 13 rebounds. She lit up Flathead for 22 points and 21 rebounds in the previous crosstown contest, a 55-43 Glacier win on Jan. 29, but the Bravettes were determined to make someone else beat them this time.

Using a box-and-1 defense, 5-11 Flathead center Jenessa Heine shadowed Hashley throughout the game and other Bravettes were quick to collapse on the Glacier center. The tactic largely paid off as Glacier was held to its third-lowest point total of the season, but Flathead struggled to get things going on the offensive end, shooting 25 percent against Glacier’s man-to-man defense.

“We played great defense, we worked hard, we played hard,” Flathead coach Karly Tait said. “But at the end of the day, that’s why it’s called basketball, because you have to make baskets.”

Heine led Flathead with 10 points on 5 of 15 shooting, but its top two scorers on the season, Emma Andrews and Emily Russell, combined for one field goal on 17 attempts. Andrews finished with eight points thanks to a 4 of 5 showing at the foul line. Point guard Dani Davis also scored eight points.

While Hashley’s touches were limited, she executed when she got the chance, making all four of her field goal attempts and both of her free throw attempts. After the game, she smiled, nodded at her teammates and said, “These guys get to be the stars.”

Point guard Hailee Bennett was Glacier’s third-leading scorer with nine points and forward Hannah Atlee and guard Kailea Vaudt each scored five.

Flathead got off to a hot start, scoring nine points in the game’s first five minutes to take a 9-4 lead, but a nearly six-minute drought allowed Glacier to go ahead 10-9 in the second quarter. Four more lead changes occurred before Fountain drilled a three-pointer to give Flathead a 17-15 lead at halftime.

With all the attention paid to Hashley, Glacier coach Kris Salonen said the opportunity was there for someone else to have a big game, but the Glacier offense was out of sync in the first half. Bennett knocked down 3 of 6 field goal attempts for six points, but Chery was held scoreless and Atlee scored three points, all from the foul line.

Chery attributed Glacier’s slow start to nerves.

“In the beginning we were playing nervous and scared,” she said. 

“Once our confidence came back, that’s when we started playing like we usually do.”

The second half included two ties and four lead changes before Glacier finished with an 11-0 run.

“We didn’t really try anything different in the fourth other than trying to focus on getting it to the other post just because they were kind of doubling (Hashley),” Salonen said.

“It was a good gameplan to take her out of the game because we needed other kids to step up and it happened.

“I look back and I never called timeouts until the fourth quarter, but I just think sometimes you’ve got to let kids try to work through it and see if they can execute.”

Thursday’s game was Flathead’s regular season finale. Glacier wraps up its regular season today at Missoula Hellgate.

Flathead98118—36

Glacier871215—42

FLATHEAD - Jenessa Heine 5-15 0-0 10, Emma Andrews 1-9 5-6 8, Dani Davis 2-9 4-4 8, Jessika Abbrescia 2-4 1-1 5, Tana Fountain 2-4 0-0 5, Emily Russell 0-8 0-0 0. Totals 12-49 10-11 36.

GLACIER - Rachel Chery 4-9 3-5 11, Cassi Hashley 4-4 2-2 10, Hailee Bennett 4-11 0-0 9, Kailea Vaudt 2-8 1-2 5, Hannah Atlee 1-2 3-4 5, Katie Wiley 1-3 0-1 2, Kirstyn Haugenoe 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 16-40 9-14 42.

3-point goals - Flathead 2-11 (Andrews, Fountain), Glacier 1-4 (Bennett). Rebounds - Flathead 27 (Andrews 9, Heine 7, Abbrescia 6), Glacier 34 (Chery 12, Hashley 7, Atlee 6). Assists - Flathead 5 (Andrews 5), Glacier 11 (Vaudt 4). Blocks - Flathead none, Glacier none. Steals - Flathead 12 (Davis 4, Andrews 3, Russell 2), Glacier 5 (Haugenoe 2, Wiley 2). Total fouls - Flathead 18, Glacier 14. Turnovers - Flathead 14, Glacier 20. Technical fouls - none. Fouled out - none.