Wolfpack overpowers West

BILLINGS — All week in practice, Bill Sullivan repeated a simple phrase.

Box out. Box out. Box out.

The Glacier girls basketball head coach knew if his team was going to compete against Eastern AA champion Billings West, which boasts five players who are 5-foot-10 or taller, it would be because Glacier held its own on the boards.

The Wolfpack did much more than just hold its own.

Glacier crushed West 40-24 on the glass, controlled the paint on both ends of the floor and trailed only twice in a 50-40 upset of the Golden Bears in the first round of the Class AA girls state basketball tournament at Rimrock Auto Arena on Thursday evening.

“We wanted to limit them to one shot and one shot only as much as we could,” Sullivan said. “The games that we win and the big games that we win, we do very well on the boards.”

Add the Wolfpack’s opening-round victory to that list.

Glacier matched West’s rebound total on the defensive end alone and added another 16 rebounds on the offensive glass.

“Focusing on (rebounding) in practice this week was a big help,” junior forward Kali Gulick, who recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, said.

In addition to its huge rebounding advantage, Glacier also seemed to get whatever it wanted inside on the offensive end.

The Wolfpack made just one 3-pointer and shot 14.3 percent from beyond the arc, but neither number mattered because of its prowess in transition and in the paint.

Anna Schrade led Glacier with 12 points, and Ellie Stevens rounded out the trio of double-digit scorers with 10.

The upset was anything but fluky.

Glacier never trailed after Stevens’ bucket made it 6-5.

The Wolfpack led by as many as 11 in the first half and 13 in the second and was never seriously threatened after it opened a decent lead, much to Sullivan’s surprise.

“I was kind of waiting. When’s that (Billings West) run going to come? When’s that run going to come?” he said. “You do have to get through those in the course of a game, and it really never did (come), which was nice. You could somewhat be relaxed as a coach, as much as I can be.”

Glacier’s victory set up an all-Western AA semifinal.

Helena Capital and Missoula Sentinel will face off today at 3:30 p.m., and Glacier squares with Helena High at 5 p.m.

The Bengals defeated the Wolfpack in both regular season meetings.

“They’re damn good,” Sullivan said. “They get after it, so we’ve got a big task ahead of us.”

But if Thursday’s upset of the top seed proved anything, it’s that the opponent is not of the utmost importance to Glacier.

“We’re playing for each other out there,” Schrade said. “We wanted to come out here and get the win together. We weren’t really looking at them. It was about our journey.”

Billings West 9 12 9 10 — 40

Glacier 15 16 7 12 — 50

BILLINGS WEST — Shea Dolan 1 0-1 2, TyLee Manuel 4 0-2 8, TyRaa Manuel 5 2-3 13, Ambreya Windy Boy 3 1-2 9, Willa Albrecht 1 2-4 4, Shayla Montague 1 0-0 2, Maddie Albrecht 0 2-2 2.

GLACIER — Ellie Stevens 5 0-0 10, Kali Gulick 4 2-4 11, Cadie Williams 0 5-11 5, Aubrie Rademacher 1 0-0 2, Anna Schrade 4 4-8 12, Alivia Atlee 3 0-0 6, Raley Shirey 1 2-2 4.

CMR 9 9 11 9 — 38

Helena 17 13 14 15 — 59

GREAT FALLS CMR — Kylie Allen 3, Allie Olsen 11, Kayci Edwards 4, Addison Gardner 6, Kyra Willis 7, Brynn Klinefelter 5, Breanna Johns 2.

Helena High — Paige Aasved 4, Payton Aasved 2, Vanessa Walsh 3, McKayla Kloker 8, Kamden Hilborn 7, Emily Feller 4, Abby Marcille 5, Jamie Pickens 26.

Helena Capital 6 12 14 8 — 40

Billings Senior 13 17 5 1 — 36

Helena Capital — Megan Lindbo 5, Katie Culver 1, Kacie Gross 9, Taylor Sullivan 6, Sydney Sheridan 3, Emily Kidder 11, Dani Bartsch 5.

Billings Senior — Tavy Findon 2, Mariah Linse 5, Kola Bad Bear 10, Samanthan Bonenberger 6, Cassidy Venner 2, Ellie Ostermiller 11.

Missoula Sentinel 14 13 15 13 — 55

Bozeman 13 9 11 4 — 37

Missoula Sentinel — Lauren Bingham 2, Shelby Schweyen 3, Emma Blakely 6, Kylie Frohlich 19, Jordyn Schweyen 14, Lexi Deden 11.

Bozeman — Ayla Embry 8, Sophia Robinson 2, Hannah Wheeler 4, Addi Ekstrom 3, Alex Carey 18, Ava Westphal 2.

Today’s Schedule

Semifinals

3:30 p.m. — Helena Capital vs. Missoula Sentinel

5 p.m. — Helena High vs. Glacier

Loser-Out Games

9 a.m. — Billings Senior vs. Bozeman

10:30 a.m. — Great Falls C.M. Russell vs. Billings West