Glacier girls blow by C-Falls
Glacier’s Cadie Williams is fouled as she drives to the hoop against Columbia Falls. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier’s Anna Schrade goes to the basket against Columbia Falls defender Diane Vasquez. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier’s Anna Schrade goes to the basket against Columbia Falls defender Diane Vasquez. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier’s Ellie Stevens drives to the hoop against Columbia Falls. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier’s Cadie Williams shoots over Columbia Falls defenders Dani Douglas (3) and Hannah Gedlaman. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier’s Ellie Stevens looks to shoot against Columbia Falls. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier’s Cadie Williams dribbles the ball upcourt with Columbia Falls’ Savannah Ellis defending. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Columbia Falls girls basketball head coach Cary Finberg reacts after receiving a technical foul in the first half against Glacier. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
The Glacier girls saved their best for last.
The Wolfpack spent the first three quarters of its local matchup with Columbia Falls sputtering on offense and clinging to narrow leads. At the end of the third, Glacier even found itself trailing its Class A foe by a point.
But by the time the buzzer sounded, the scare had long passed.
The Wolfpack scored 18 point in the fourth quarter, its highest total out of eight quarters played so far this season, to pull away from the Wildkats 46-37 in front of a split crowd on Tuesday night at Glacier High.
“A Valley game, you never know what’s going to happen,” Glacier head basketball coach Bill Sullivan said. “I thought both teams struggled to get into what they needed to get in. It was kind of ugly at times.
“Down the stretch, we finally got kind of comfortable and built a lead. I think our girls relaxed.”
Anna Schrade dropped six of her team-high 12 points in the fourth quarter to lead Glacier’s offensive charge.
“When she’s got a shot, she’s going to take it,” Sullivan said of his senior guard. “We let her do that.”
Schrade scored back-to-back buckets to begin the quarter, reclaiming the Wolfpack’s lead, but it did not begin to pull away from Columbia Falls until almost halfway through the final period.
After the Wildkats scored to cut Glacier’s lead to 34-32, Aubrie Rademacher got a layup to drop despite a foul on the other end. She missed the free throw, but Ellie Stevens, a forward who is one of only four seniors for the Wolfpack, grabbed the offensive rebound and made a layup of her own with a foul. Stevens made the free throw, and in what seemed like the blink of an eye, Glacier’s lead swelled to seven.
“That was a big momentum shift,” Sullivan said.
Dani Douglas stymied the Glacier momentum and cut the Wolfpack lead back down to 39-35 with a 3-pointer on the other end, but that was as close as Columbia Falls would get.
Glacier scored seven of the next eight points to pull away.
“Offensively, we finally figured out where we needed to be and got quality shots that we made,” Sullivan said of the fourth quarter. “We were getting a lot of good shots all night long, and we didn’t make any. We missed a lot of layups, but in the end, we hit certainly more than we missed.”
Ryley Kehr paced Columbia Falls with 12 points but was held scoreless in the fourth quarter. Hannah Gedlaman added nine for the Wildkats.
Though an earlier offensive breakout would have kept his stress levels down, Sullivan said after the contest he was happy his team was locked in a close game and proud of how it responded in the situation. After cruising to a win over Great Falls CMR in its opener, he said an early-season test like the one the Wolfpack received Tuesday night would only do it good moving forward.
“It’s important, because certainly it’s going to be a battle when we get into our conference,” he said. “Some nights you’re going to shoot well. Some nights you’re not. Some nights, you just shave to fight and grind and find a way to win.”
Columbia Falls 5 10 14 8 — 37
Glacier 6 12 10 18 — 46
COLUMBIA FALLS: Dani Douglas 7, Savannah Ellis 2, Hannah Gedlaman 9, Ryley Kehr 12, Trista Cowan 6.
GLACIER: Ellie Stevens 9, Kali Gulick 7, Cadie Williams 6, Bria Anderson 2, Aubrie Rademacher 2, Anna Schrade 12, Alivia Atlee 6, Raley Shirey 2.