Braves close out Wolfpack

By JOSEPH TERRY

The Daily Inter Lake

Tyler Johnson scored nine of his game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter to lead Flathead by Glacier in a Western AA conference boys basketball game on Thursday night at Flathead High School.

Johnson, who hit four 3-pointers in the game, hit his biggest shots late, giving Flathead (10-9 overall, 6-5 Western AA) its first lead since the game’s opening seconds on a deep shot early in the fourth quarter and sealed the game late at the free-throw line, holding off a fiesty Wolfpack (17-3, 10-2) squad that had only lost twice all season.

“That was one of our better games of the year if not our best game,” Braves coach Ross Gustafson said. “The game plan going in was to be very aggressive, confident and attack. They went out and they did that for 32 minutes.”

Johnson scored the first points of the game and helped Flathead keep pace with a Glacier team that started on a rapid pace. The Wolfpack hit three 3-pointers in the first four minutes to take an 11-6 lead midway through the first, only to go cold for the rest of the frame. The Braves took advantage, with Johnson hitting a 3 in the final minute of the quarter to send the game into the second quarter tied at 11-11.

Glacier got on a run again early in the second, led this time by junior Brec Rademacher. The 6-foot-2 guard hit his second 3-pointer of the game two minutes into the quarter, then broke free on turnovers on the next two possessions, scoring seven points in 42 seconds to give Glacier a 20-12 lead.

Flathead would chip away again, this time inside with Sam Elliott and Cade White, closing the half with another Johnson 3-pointer to extend an 8-2 run that cut Glacier’s lead to 24-22 at the break.

The teams came out even in the third quarter as each was able to work the ball inside. Glacier senior Jaxen Hashley, who had only four points in the first half, exploded in the third, scoring 10 points in the paint.

Even with Hashley’s resurgence, Flathead was able to answer each run, tying the game three times in the quarter before a Hashley bucket was able to give Glacier a 41-39 lead entering the fourth.

Flathead tied the game again early in the fourth and took its first lead in 27 minutes of game time on Johnson’s 3 with 5:40 to play. Glacier quickly tied the score but Flathead went into the post twice to pull out to a four-point advantage.

Hashley cut the lead to two points twice, the second time with 1:23 to play. Out of the inbounds, Flathead began to stall, passing around for nearly 30 seconds before Glacier could foul to stop the clock. The Wolfpack had a foul to give, however, and had to waste another two seconds before Flathead could shoot a pair of free throws, making both to push the lead out to 52-48.

Glacier missed on the other end, but was given another chance when Flathead missed the front end of a bonus free throw with 39 seconds to play. The Wolfpack secured the rebound and got the ball to senior Tadan Gilman, who nailed a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left to cut the lead to 52-51.

Flathead made 1 of 2 free throws on its next trip to the line, but after the rebound, Glacier was called for traveling, turning the ball over with 11 seconds to play.

Johnson hit a pair of free throws to push the Flathead lead to four points, and after a Gilman bucket with less than a second on the clock, Johnson made another pair to ice the game.

“That was Tyler Johnson’s coming out party,” Gustafson said. “He’s a heck of a player and he’s done some great things for the Braves, especially only as a junior, but that was by far his most complete game. He played all but 20 seconds of the game and he was locked in the whole time.”

Johnson’s 25 points were a game-high and he added a team-best five rebounds.

“Our goal going in was to attack, attack, attack,” Johnson said. “We knew they were going to give us some 3s but we couldn’t settle. We needed to attack to spread their defense out so we could get those open ones towards the end of the game when we needed them. We needed to work. Their zone (defense is) awesome.”

A win from Missoula Hellgate (14-5, 8-3) over Helena (5-14, 4-7) locked Flathead into the fourth seed in the Western conference, where it will host Helena in a playoff game next week.

Glacier clinched the West’s top seed on Tuesday and will have two weeks off until the opening rounds of the state tournament in Great Falls.

Hashley led Glacier with 18 points and 12 rebounds while Gilman had 14 points and Rademacher 11.

“We didn’t match the intensity of Flathead,” Glacier coach Mark Harkins said. “I think they wanted the game more than we did. They got the hustle plays, they got the loose balls. They played a great game. I didn’t think we matched that. That was one of our keys, we had to match their intensity, for whatever reason we didn’t do that tonight.

“We’ve got to learn to compete every time we’re out on the floor. We’ll get better. We’ve got a week and a half to get ready and I think by the time we get to the state tournament those guys will be hungry again and we’ll be good to go.”

Glacier 11 13 17 12 — 53

Flathead 11 11 17 18 — 57

GLACIER — Caden Harkins 2 0-0 5, Tadan Gilman 6 1-2 14, Collin Kazmier 1 0-0 3, Brec Rademacher 4 0-0 11, Jaxen Hashley 9 0-2 18, Pat O’Connell 1 0-0 2. Totals: 23 1-4 53.

FLATHEAD — Cade White 4 0-0 8, Bridger Johnson 2 2-4 6, Eric Seaman 2 3-4 7, Cole Gunderson 0 0-1 0, Tyler Johnson 8 5-6 25, Sam Elliott 4 1-2 9, Dawson Smith 1 0-0 2. Totals: 21 11-17 57.

3-point goals—Glacier 6 (Rademacher 3, Harkins, Gilman, Kazmier), Flathead 4 (Tyler Johnson 4). Rebounds—Glacier 36 (Hashley 12), Flathead 37 (Tyler Johnson 5). Total fouls—Glacier 16, Flathead 7. Fouled out—O’Connell.