Capital hangs on, beats Flathead

Flathead guard Chandler Escalante’s last-second three-point attempt bounced off the far side of the rim and Helena Capital handed the Braves their first conference loss, 62-59, at Flathead High School Friday.

The loss spoiled a career-high 26 points from Flathead point guard Blaine Newman, who couldn’t shake the defense of Capital’s Kyle Harrington on the final possession.

Newman buried a contested three-pointer on Flathead’s previous possession to cut the Bruins’ lead to 61-59 before Capital’s Hunter Beto split a pair of free throws at the other end and Flathead called a timeout with 7.2 seconds remaining.

“We didn’t really care if anyone else shot at that point because he was on fire,” Capital coach Guy Almquist said of Newman. “I told Kyle Harrington, ‘just don’t let him get it. Let anyone else get the ball and we’ll live with the result.’”

Shea Schroeder inbounded to Will Cronk, who found center Garth West on the weak side. West swung the ball out to Escalante who hoisted a three at the buzzer.

Flathead coach Fred Febach said he drew up a play to give Newman one more shot, but the point guard was blanketed by the Capital defense.

“We try to run a certain play, but it always seems to work out that somebody else ends up with the ball in their hands,” Febach said. “(Escalante) had the look, it just didn’t go.”

Almquist said he considered fouling to keep Flathead from shooting a potential game-tying three, but opted to trust his defense.

“It was seven seconds, so it was a little bit under where I’d want to foul, so we just said let’s play square up,” he said.

Newman finished 10 of 14 from the field and 4 of 7 from behind the three-point line. Schroeder supplemented Newman’s career night with 12 points while West finished with eight. Carson Dummer and Beto led the Bruins with 14 and 13 points, respectively.

Flathead led by as many as eight early in the fourth quarter after starting the frame with six unanswered points, but a three-pointer by Capital guard Keeley Larson, a layup by Dummer and another three by Larson tied the score at 46.

Three more ties ensued before Newman hit a three to give the Braves a two-point lead. Beto answered with a three with 1:27 remaining and the Bruins led from that point on.

“That fourth quarter really sunk us,” Febach said. “We just needed a little bit more here and there, a stop here and there.

“Give credit to Capital. They hit open threes. Every time we left somebody open in the second half, they nailed it.”

Flathead trailed much of the first half but only faced a one-point deficit at halftime after Newman scored nine points in the second quarter, including a 5-0 run that included two driving layups and a free throw.

The Braves captured the lead with a 7-0 run to start the second half and didn’t trail again until there were less than three minutes remaining in the game.

Newman said Capital’s defense kept the Braves from pulling away.

“We knew they were going to come hard and we knew we had to match it,” he said. “I feel like we did pretty well. We had an open look at the end, we just couldn’t get it to drop.”

Newman said it was disappointing his huge night wasn’t enough to propel his team to victory, but he’s anxious to get another shot at the Bruins when Flathead travels to Helena in three weeks.

“We’ve got a second chance when we go down there and try to take one away from them in their own house,” he said.

The win was the third in a row for Capital (6-4 overall, 3-1 Western AA). Flathead (7-3, 2-1) will look to bounce back today when it hosts Helena High (5-5, 0-3) at 2:30 p.m.

“I think they’ll come ready to play,” Febach said. “They played a good team, but they also feel that they themselves are a good team. The measure of a good team is the ability to bounce back and play through some adversity, and that’s where we’re at.”

Helena Capital 13 11 14 24 — 62

Flathead 10 13 17 19 — 59

HELENA CAPITAL - Carson Dummer 5-7 4-6 14, Hunter Beto 4-6 3-4 13, Sean Carroll 3-4 3-4 9, Keeley Larson 3-4 1-2 9, Kyle Nickol 2-4 2-2 8, Kyle Harrington 2-8 1-2 5, Aaron Gilman 2-2 0-0 4, Levi Dawes 0-2 0-0 0.

FLATHEAD - Blaine Newman 10-14 2-5 26, Shea Schroeder 5-13 2-4 12, Garth West 4-6 0-1 8, Will Cronk 2-2 2-2 6, Adam Bradley 1-1 3-4 5, Matt Quist 1-1 0-0 2, Chandler Escalante 0-2 0-0 0, Matthew Tokarz 0-0 0-0 0, Parker Sutton 0-0 0-0 0, Kaleb Cannaday 0-0 0-0 0.

3-point goals - Capital 6-12 (Nickol 2, Beto 2, Larson 2), Flathead 4-9 (Newman 4). Rebounds - Capital 18 (Dawes 5, Harrington 4), Flathead 13 (West 4, Tokarz 3). Assists - Capital 7 (Beto 2, Carroll 2), Flathead 15 (Cronk 4, Newman 3, Tokarz 3). Blocks - Capital 1 (Beto), Flathead 2 (Tokarz, West). Steals - Capital 8 (Harrington 3, Beto 3), Flathead 6 (Cronk 3, Schroeder 2). Turnovers - Capital 17, Flathead 16. Team fouls - Capital 18, Flathead 16. Technical fouls - none. Fouled out - Tokarz.