GIRLS BASKETBALL: Glacier whips Missoula Big Sky
The Glacier girls locked down on defense, beating Missoula Big Sky 50-30 in a Western AA girls conference basketball game on Saturday, surviving a short night to hand the Eagles their first conference loss of the season.
The Wolfpack began pulling away in the second quarter, as they held Big Sky to just three points, the Eagles’ only field goal coming just two minutes into the quarter.
In that stretch, Glacier got aggressive and expanded its lead to nine points at half. The Wolfpack scored five of its nine points in the quarter at the free-throw line and the other two buckets at the rim.
“We did great. After coming home at 3 o’clock in the morning from Idaho last night, we just wanted to get back to our man-to-man defense,” Glacier coach Kris Salonen said.
“That’s what was going to get our offense going. I was really proud of the girls for coming out and playing good, hard D. I don’t think Big Sky expected we were going to come out with that much energy. Our defense is going to keep coming together.”
Glacier held serve in a back-and-forth third quarter and started pulling away in the fourth, when it went on a 16-2 scoring run to blow the game out of contention.
Wolfpack senior guard Hailee Bennett was the catalyst to the run, scoring eight straight points in the fourth quarter to carry Glacier to a 21-point lead. After hitting a step-back jumper from 18-feet, she drove the lane for another bucket and hit two more jumpers to ice it.
Bennett finished the contest with a game-high 17 points and five steals.
The Wolfpack forced Big Sky into 23 turnovers.
“(Bennett) needed to have a good second half because she was sitting a lot of the second quarter (in foul trouble),” Salonen said.
“It was good for her to get things rolling. We started the fourth quarter only up (11 points). For her to get rolling like that, we were able to get a cushion and relax.”
Glacier also did a good job of preventing Eagles star post Anna Gragg from getting touches, holding the senior to just seven points, only two in the second half.
Julia Riekena led Big Sky with eight points.
“We knew (Gragg) was going to touch the ball, we just weren’t going to give her any easy ones,” Salonen said.
“She had to work pretty hard. I was proud of how our girls played defense on her.
“Our press was nice, it was a good team effort.”
Big Sky 10 3 10 7 — 30
Glacier 13 9 12 16 — 50
BIG SKY — Kendall Mooney 3-7 1-3 7, Kelsi McEnany 0-3 3-4 3, Mckenna Arledge 1-8 2-2 5, Julia Riekena 4-8 0-0 8, Anna Gragg 3-7 1-5 7, Cassidy Pierce 0-4 0-1 0. Totals: 11-37 7-15 30.
GLACIER — Taylor Salonen 1-4 2-2 5, Anna Schrade 2-6 2-2 6, Nikki Krueger 2-4 3-6 7, Hailee Bennett 7-14 2-3 17, Ahna Kreitinger 1-2 1-2 3, Brynn McChesney 1-1 0-1 2, Hailey Ruggles 0-1 0-0 0, Christine Connolly 2-4 0-0 4, Courtney Mitchell 2-7 2-2 6, Kali Gulick 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 18-44 12-18 50.
3-point goals—Big Sky 1-8 (Arledge 1-5, Mooney 0-2, Pierce 0-1), Glacier 2-4 (Salonen 1-1, Bennett 1-3). Rebounds—Big Sky 23 (Gragg 8, McEnany 7), Glacier 27 (Krueger 8). Assists—Big Sky 4 (McEnany 2, Gragg 2), Glacier 5 (Bennett 2, Connolly 2). Blocks—Big Sky 5 (Gragg 2), Glacier 3 (Salonen, Krueger, Cadie Williams). Steals—Big Sky 5 (Pierce 2), Glacier 15 (Bennett 5). Total fouls—Big Sky 16, Glacier 18. Technical fouls—none. Fouled out—none.
Friday
At Post Falls, Idaho
Nonconference
Glacier 7 9 13 9 — 38
Post Falls 25 19 14 11 — 69
GLACIER — Salonen 1, Bennett 13, Kreitinger 4, Krueger 10, Schrade 4, Mitchell 4, Gulick 2.
POST FALLS — Ellison 4, Morris 8, Gennett 3, Brennan 12, McComb 7, Robinson 3, Kempton 17, Parks 4, Johnson 2, Ter Maaten 10.