Sentinel slips by Glacier girls

The Glacier girls hung with top-ranked Missoula Sentinel for the first half, leading the Spartans for all but 1 minute, 33 seconds. Sentinel took over in the third quarter, pulling away for a 51-39 Western AA conference basketball victory on Saturday afternoon.

The Wolfpack (10-6 overall, 4-4 Western AA) went to the paint often against the Spartans (16-0, 8-0), breaking the tight zone defense with quick passing inside. The approach paid off, with Glacier holding the lead for all but five possessions in the first half, entering halftime tied at 22-22 after Sentinel made a late flurry.

“We knew against their zone we had to get touches inside,” Glacier coach Kris Salonen said. “Credit to the bigs, that’s the positive stuff that I felt we did a really good job.”

Glacier led 26-25 in the third quarter, but fell back into its cold shooting form. The Wolfpack failed to score for the final 5:29 of the third quarter, allowing Sentinel to rip off a 16-0 run to reclaim a 41-26 lead.

Wolfpack senior Hailee Bennett made a pair of 3-pointers to start the fourth quarter and junior Nikki Krueger hit a bucket and a free throw in the post to cut the deficit to nine points with 5:59 to play.

However, any chance Glacier had to cut the lead after that was undermined at the free-throw line. The Wolfpack missed its next three foul shots, an opportunity that could have cut the Sentinel lead to seven points midway through the quarter.

Sentinel took the air out of the ball for the final three minutes, and Glacier made just one more basket.

“I’m really proud of their effort. After our loss on Thursday night against Big Sky, that was the challenge, how would they compete?” Salonen said.

“We’re playing the best team in the state and we gave ourselves a chance in the first half. We just didn’t come out in the third with that much energy. We stopped attacking on offense and we were off again. We had a cold weekend of shooting. You’re not going to win many games scoring 39 points.”

The Wolfpack built a big lead early, taking a 7-2 lead in the first three minutes. To attack the zone defense, Glacier moved the ball well through the paint, scoring 8 of its first 11 points from the paint.

Glacier led 13-12 after the first quarter and opened up a four-point lead midway through the second. Sentinel retook the lead on a 6-0 run, but Wolfpack senior Taylor Salonen tied the game before halftime with a steal and a layup at the other end.

Krueger led Glacier with 11 points and Bennett had nine points and seven rebounds. Glacier shot just 36 percent from the field in the game and just 30 percent from 3-point range.

Shannon Worster scored 15 points and Shelby Schweyen had 12 points to lead Sentinel.

Glacier hits the road for the final time in the regular season next weekend, playing a pair of road games in Helena, at Helena High on Friday and Helena Capital on Saturday. With the loss, the Wolfpack fell into a tie for fourth place in the conference with Missoula Big Sky, a game behind third place Helena High.

Sentinel 12 10 19 10 — 51

Glacier 13 9 4 13 — 39

SENTINEL—Shelby Schweyen 5-14 0-0 12, Kyllie Frohlich 2-6 3-3 7, Jordan Schweyen 2-7 3-4 7, Shannon Worster 5-9 4-7 15, Bronwyn McCormick 2-5 2-3 6, Brittney Delridge 0-1 2-4 2, Kayla Daily 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 17-44 14-21 51.

GLACIER—Taylor Salonen 2-4 0-0 4, Anna Schrade 1-7 1-2 3, Nikki Krueger 5-7 1-2 11, Courtney Mitchell 3-8 1-4 7, Hailee Bennett 3-14 0-0 9, Ahna Kreitinger 0-1 0-0 0, Hailey Ruggles 0-1 0-0 0, Christine Connolly 0-1 0-0 0, Kali Gulick 2-2 1-2 5. Totals: 16-45 4-10 39.

3-point goals—Sentinel 3-7 (S. Schweyen 2-2, Worster 1-1, J. Schweyen 0-3, Daily 0-1), Glacier 3-10 (Bennett 3-8, Salonen 0-1, Ruggles 0-1). Rebounds—Sentinel 25 (Frohlich 6), Glacier 27 (Bennett 7). Assists—Sentinel 9 (Worster 5), Glacier 11 (Salonen 3, Bennett 3). Blocks—Sentinel 3 (Worster 2), Glacier 1 (Bennett). Steal—Sentinel 10 (Frohlich 3, Deridge 3), Glacier 3 (Salonen 2). Total fouls—Sentinel 8, Glacier 17. Fouled out—Sentinel, Frohlich. Technical fouls—none.