CROSSTOWN: Glacier girls blow past Flathead, sweep season series
<p>Glacier's Hailee Bennett (4) celebrates with Nikki Krueger (21) and Taylor Salonen (3) after making a basket and getting fouled during the third quarter of the Wolfpack's 65-41 crosstown victory against Flathead on Friday, Feb, 26, 2016. (Aaric Bryan/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>The Glacier bench celebrates as Cadie Williams makes a free throw in the final minutes of the Wolfpack's 65-41 win against Flathead. (Aaric Bryan/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Glacier's Nikki Krueger scores as Flathead's Tiana Johnson defends her during the second quarter at Glacier on Friday. (Aaric Bryan/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
The Glacier girls made sure to leave no doubt in their final game of the regular season, routing Flathead 65-41 on Friday night to set themselves up in a good position for the state tournament play-in games.
The Glacier girls left no doubt, ripping off a 16-3 run to close the first quarter and take an 11-point lead. A 10-1 run in the second quarter extended the Wolfpack lead to 35-17 with two minutes to play in the half.
Glacier led 39-23 at halftime.
“Right away we started off well,” Glacier coach Kris Salonen said.
“To get up and have that lead, but then keep it. We got into halftime with a 16-point lead. Credit to the kids coming out ready to compete.”
The Wolfpack wasted little time putting the game away in the second half.
Glacier scored the first 13 points of the third quarter and led by 30 points with 2:43 left in the frame. Flathead scored the final six points of the third, but never got closer than 22 points in the final eight minutes.
“I was really happy with how they responded (from the loss to Missoula Hellgate on Thursday) and started tonight,” Salonen said.
“We wanted to get off to a good start and attack. We knew if we could defend, rebound and run we’d be sitting good. That’s what we did.”
Hailee Bennett had a game-high 18 points to lead the Wolfpack and junior Nikki Krueger had 16 points and 12 rebounds.
“That’s quite the double-double tonight,” Salonen said.
The Glacier girls outrebounded Flathead 49-20, the Wolfpack grabbing more offensive boards, 23, than the Bravettes had total.
Tiana Johnson had 11 points to lead Flathead (4-16 overall, 0-12 Western AA), which will travel to Helena Capital (10-9, 4-7) for a state play-in game on Tuesday.
Glacier (12-8, 6-6) will have to wait to see when and which team it will play next week. The Wolfpack could finish in any position from third through fifth depending on the outcomes of two games tonight.
The Missoula schools hold pole position on guaranteed bids to state entering the regular season’s final day of play. Sentinel (19-0, 11-0) has already clinched the top seed and Hellgate (12-8, 7-5) ended its regular season with a win over Glacier. Big Sky (11-7, 6-5) and Helena High (12-7, 6-5) each could join Hellgate at 7-5 with wins tonight.
Helena closes against undefeated Sentinel and Big Sky against Helena Capital. Should either or both Big Sky and Helena High lose its final contest and fall to 6-6, Glacier hold the tiebreaker over each and would take the higher seed.
Flathead 7 16 8 10 — 41
Glacier 18 21 16 10 — 65
FLATHEAD — Kylee Meredith 1-6 2-2 4, Sierra Siblerud 1-4 0-0 2, Cadelyn Nunn 1-4 0-6 2, Allison Gagnon 0-3 0-0 0, Tiana Johnson 4-10 1-4 11, Mary Heaton 2-3 4-4 8, Kelsey Gillespie 4-9 1-1 9, Clara Vandenbosch 1-1 0-0 2, Taylor Henley 1-3 0-0 2, Kylee Beccari 0-0 1-2 1. Totals: 15-43 9-19 41.
GLACIER — Taylor Salonen 2-7 0-0 4, Anna Schrade 1-6 0-0 2, Nikki Krueger 5-9 6-8 16, Hailee Bennett 5-13 8-12 18, Hailey Ruggles 2-9 3-3 8, Ellie Stevens 0-1 0-0 0, Cadie Williams 0-0 1-2 1, Madison Rauthe 0-0 0-1 0, Ahna Kreitinger 1-2 0-0 2, Emma Shew 0-1 0-0 0, Chirstine Connolly 1-2 0-0 2, Courtney Mitchell 2-4 0-2 4, Kali Gulick 4-4 0-0 8. Totals: 23-58 18-28 65.
3-point goals — Flathead 2-9 (Johnson 2-5, Nonn 0-2, Gillespie 0-2), Glacier 1-13 (Ruggles 1-5, Bennett 0-5, Salonen 0-3). Rebounds — Flathead 20 (Meredith 6), Glacier 49 (Krueger 12). Assists — Flathead 6 (Meredith 3), Glacier 12 (Bennett 5). Blocks — Flathead 1 (Siblerud), Glacier 4 (Salonen, Krueger, Ruggles, Brynn McChesney). Steals — Flathead 8 (Meredith 3), Glacier 13 (Bennett 3, Ruggles 3). Total fouls — Flathead 20, Glacier 13. Fouled out — Flathead, Meredith. Technical fouls — none.