Flathead tops Whitefish in opener

WHITEFISH — With fresh legs late, Flathead pulled away from Whitefish to turn a tie game at halftime into a 73-54 blowout in the first boys basketball game of the season for the two schools Friday night.

Flathead, which played only two seniors and has eight sophomores or freshmen on the varsity club, found its rhythm in the second half. The Braves outscored Whitefish 17-8 over a stretch of six minutes in the third quarter and opened the fourth on a 21-8 run to put the game away.

“We played a lot better (after halftime),” Flathead coach Fred Febach said. “We played a lot smarter ... What I really liked is when we had opportunities to go up the floor (in transition), we didn’t hesitate, we didn’t drift. We just went up the floor and if there was a lane to the rim we took advantage of it.”

Whitefish was having its way early, hitting jump shots and finding its way to the rim. The Bulldogs forced Flathead into its seventh team foul of the half with a shade less than seven minutes left in the second quarter, hitting a pair of free throws to take a 20-13 lead.

The Braves, who went cold from the field for more than four minutes, found a spark in senior Alex Croymans. Croymans hit a 3-pointer to nearly half Flathead’s deficit and started a procession to the free-throw line that saw him sink five of six shots to cut the Whitefish lead to 25-21.

Then Flathead’s youth took over. Led by freshmen Tyler Johnson and Micah Bucy and sophomores Matt Marshall and Seth Adolph, the Braves scored 10 straight points helping them enter the halftime break tied at 31-31.

Pressure caused the Bulldogs to break in the second half and the tired legs of many players that were in football action just three weeks ago saw quite a few jumpers fall short.

“Towards the end of the second quarter we hit a wall,” Whitefish coach Curtis Green said.

“They got tired, which led to some turnovers and missed shots. They had no legs to shoot, had a hard time getting back on defense. They were tired.”

AJ Wetsch led Whitefish with 12 points and Jack Streibich had 11.

Croymans finished with a game-high 18 points to lead Flathead. Tyler Johnson had 13 and Marshall 11 for the Braves.

“This team has a lot of room for improvement,” Febach said.

“It’s a season long thing, there’s going to be a lot of peaks and valleys. But this is a fun group to coach. They’re fun to be around and I really like their work ethic. It should be fun this year.”

Flathead is back on the court today in its first Class AA nonconference contest at Bozeman.

Flathead 13 18 19 23 — 73

Whitefish 16 15 12 11 — 54

FLATHEAD — Matt Marshall 11, Seth Adolph 2, Alex Croymans 18, Kye Auclaire 2, Bridger Johnson 2, Tyler Johnson 13, Keaton Krantz 6, Blake Wilson 4, Micah Bucy 7, Trae Habel 8.

WHITEFISH — Derek Kastella 4, Brian FauntLeRoy 6, AJ Wetsch 12, Cody Olson 10, Luke May 5, Jack Streibich 11, Luke Cardon 2, Chaffin Ross 4.