Braves start 2-0 in Western AA hoops
Despite missing two regulars due to illness and having two starters limited by foul trouble, the Flathead Braves still had the depth to rout Missoula Big Sky 59-36 in their home basketball opener at Flathead High School Saturday.
The Braves (4-1, 2-0 Western AA) led wire-to-wire, opening the first quarter with an 11-2 run and building their lead to 21 points early in the fourth, but they faced some adversity along the way, including a 7-2 Big Sky (4-3, 0-2 Western AA) run at the end of the second quarter that cut Flathead’s lead to five.
“We let them back into it towards the end of the second half, so we knew we had to come out, play hard and just blow them out,” said Flathead point guard Blaine Newman, who scored 14 points and tallied a game-high four assists.
Flathead dominated on the glass, outrebounding Big Sky 41-20, and held the Eagles to three field goals in the second half.
“Of our first five games, that’s the best we’ve played at both ends of the floor,” Flathead coach Fred Febach said.
The Braves were without starting forward Matt Quist and reserve guard Chandler Escalante, and their depth was tested even more when starting forwards Garth West and Matthew Tokarz got into foul trouble, and eventually fouled out, but the Braves received valuable contributions from multiple reserves. Will Cronk led the bench with seven points while Adam Bradley grabbed seven rebounds.
“That was nice to see,” Febach said. “I was able to play some kids I probably wouldn’t normally play, and they stepped on the court and did well for us.”
Shea Schroeder led Flathead with 15 points, shooting 4 of 7 from the field and knocking down 7 of 12 free throws, but he said it was the contributions of his teammates that allowed the Braves to win so convincingly.
“We were missing two kids tonight and players stepped up from the bench,” Schroeder said. “Kaleb Cannaday started instead of Matt Quist and I think he played phenomenal. Everyone played a great team game.”
After leading 25-20 at halftime, Flathead scored eight consecutive points to open the second half. West scored from the low post on the Braves’ first two possessions of the half before Cannaday added a three-pointer to extend the Flathead lead to 13.
Big Sky scored just one field goal the entire third quarter as the Eagles struggled against Flathead’s aggressive man-to-man defense.
“When you play well offensively and you’re scoring the ball, you gain confidence and that carries over to your defense,” Febach said. “It allows you to play with more intensity on defense, plus you don’t have to be perfect on defense because you know you can score at the other end.”
The fourth quarter was largely a free throw contest, with Flathead scoring nine of its 16 points at the foul line and Big Sky getting seven of its 12 points off foul shots.
Olan Donaldson led Big Sky with 10 points, shooting 2 of 4 from the field and 6 of 6 at the free throw line. Cole Baker began the game as Big Sky’s top scorer (11.6 points per game), but was held to six points.
“He creates so many problems because he’s able to take you off the bounce and he’s able to shoot the ball a little bit,” Febach said of Baker. “We just wanted to try to control him. It’s not that we felt he was a major scorer, but having the ball in his hands makes them so much better, so we wanted to make him work for everything. Not just to pass the ball, but to get the ball, to bring it up the floor, those kind of things.”
Flathead defeated Missoula Sentinel two days earlier in its first conference game and Newman said starting 2-0 in Western AA should give the Braves momentum as the conference season heats up.
“It’s really exciting for us because we set a goal to go at least 10-2 in the conference,” he said. “So we’re starting that goal out pretty well.”
Flathead hosts one of Eastern AA’s top teams, Great Falls C.M. Russell (6-1), on Saturday.
“They’re big, they’re athletic and they’re good,” Febach said. “It will be a big test. This win gives us some momentum and certainly a good deal of confidence, which I think is big in basketball.”
Big Sky 4 16 4 12 — 36
Flathead 11 14 18 16 — 59
BIG SKY - Olan Donaldson 2-4 6-6 10, Jay Owens 2-4 2-4 7, Cole Baker 2-7 1-4 6, Colin Bingham 1-1 2-4 4, Tyler Thornock 1-4 1-2 3, Ethan Donaldson 0-2 2-4 2, Jesson Preston 0-7 2-2 2, RJ Lavalley 0-3 1-2 1, Alex Mustard 0-3 1-2 1, Ryan Koster 0-1 0-0 0.
FLATHEAD - Shea Schroeder 4-7 7-12 15, Blaine Newman 6-15 0-0 14, Garth West 4-4 4-5 12, Will Cronk 1-5 4-4 7, Matthew Tokarz 1-2 2-4 4, Kaleb Cannaday 1-2 0-0 3, Easton Johnson 1-2 0-0 3, Adam Bradley 0-0 1-2 1, Parker Sutton 0-0 0-2 0, Tommie Owens 0-0 0-0 0.
3-pointers - Big Sky 2-8 (Baker, Owens), Flathead 5-14 (Newman 2, Cannaday, Cronk, Johnson). Rebounds - Big Sky 20 (Mustard 4, Owens 4, Koster 3), Flathead 41 (Schroeder 8, West 7, Bradley 7). Assists - Big Sky 1 (Baker), Flathead 8 (Newman 4). Blocks - Big Sky 1 (Thornock), Flathead 3 (Newman, Cannaday, West). Steals - Big Sky 4 (Ethan Donaldson 2, Owens, Lavalley), Flathead 6 (West 2, Cronk 2). Fouls - Big Sky 22, Flathead 25. Technical fouls - Big Sky 1. Fouled out - Tokarz, West.