Drought sinks Flathead boys against Sentinel
Flathead's Hunter Hickey (10) dribbles around Missoula Sentinel's TJ Rausch (10) at Flathead High School on Thursday. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Flathead's Cooper Smith (20) shoots a jumper in the lane against Missoula Sentinel at Flathead High School on Thursday. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Flathead's Gabe Adams (3) drives to the basket past Missoula Sentinel's Alex Germer (5) at Flathead High School on Thursday. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Flathead's Gabe Adams (13) drives into the lane against Missoula Sentinel's Alex Germer (5) at Flathead High School on Thursday. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
For a time the Flathead Braves were sticking with Missoula Sentinel, getting hands on passes and shots and finishing at the rim on their home court.
Then it happened, or to be more accurate didn’t happen: Flathead went scoreless the last 6:25 of the second quarter.
That paved the way for Sentinel’s 74-47 win in the Western AA boys’ basketball opener for both teams — a prolonged drought after pair of free throws by Joston Cripe – made in place of Gabe Adams, who had to sub out because of blood on his jersey – brought the Braves to 27-20.
They didn’t score again until Hunter Hickey drilled a three to open the second half.
“That’s kind of where we’re at,” Flathead coach Ross Gustafson said of his young team, now 0-4 overall and 0-1 in league. “We play well for stretches. But I told the guys, ‘It’s a 32-minute game. You can’t play well for 15 or 20 minutes and expect to get the W.’”
The Spartans got 17 points from forward Hayden Kolb, six coming in that 9-0 spurt to close the second quarter. Add in a buzzer-beating layup from Zac Crews and the Spartans (4-0, 1-0) led 36-20 at halftime.
The gap grew to 51-29 on T.J. Rausch’s basket at 2:20 of the third quarter; Tony Frohlich-Fehr hit a pair of threes before the period ended to make it 59-34.
Flathead’s brightest spots were Hickey, who had five rebounds to go with three blocks and seven points, and Adams and Cripe combining for 21 points.
The Braves also blocked seven shots total, but more often than not the Spartans got the rebound. Sentinel owned a 44-18 advantage on the boards.
Frohlich-Fehr had eight rebounds to go with 15 points; 6-foot-8 Alex Germer added 11 points and six boards. Kolb had nine rebounds.
“We’ve got to be a little bit tougher and go get the ball,” Gustafson said. “We’ll continue to work at that. They’re big and long for sure, but we’ve got to put a body on someone and we have to secure the ball with two hands.”
At the other end, things just went too cold.
“We just seem to have stretches where we struggle getting into our stuff offensively,” Gustafson said. “We need to rely on running our stuff. When we do I think we’ll have more success.”
Cripe’s team-high 11 points included one three. Tannen Beyl and Ezra Epperly each blocked two shots for Flathead.
Sentinel 24 12 23 15 — 74
Flathead 16 4 14 13 — 47
MISSOULA SENTINEL (4-0, 1-0) – Hayden Kolb 7-11 0-0 17, Tony Frohlich-Fehr 5-10 2-4 15, Alex Germer 4-10 2-7 11, TJ Rausch 3-6 0-0 6, Soren Syvrud 1-3 0-0 3, Zac Crews 3-5 1-2 7, Parker Lindsay 1-1 0-0 2, Jamie Jacobsen 2-3 0-1 6, Jack Larsen 1-5 0-0 2, Skye Palmer 0-0 0-0 0, Haiden Crews 1-1 0-0 3, Peyton Stevens 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 28-55 7-16 74. 3-point goals 11-23 (Kolb 3-7, Frohlich-Fehr 3-5, Germer 1-3, Syvrud 1-1, Jacobsen 2-3, Crews 1-1, Larsen 0-2, Rausch 0-1). Rebounds 44 (Kolb 9). Fouls – 17. Turnovers 11.
FLATHEAD (0-4, 0-1) – Cooper Smith 3-7 0-3 6, Tannen Beyl 2-7 2-2 8, Gabe Adams 3-5 4-4 10, Hunter Hickey 3-4 0-0 7, Joston Cripe 2-6 6-6 11, Brian Wells 0-3 0-0 0, Gatlin Bruner 0-1 0-0 0, Jessy Reynolds 1-1 0-0 3, Ezra Epperly 0-3 0-3 0, Max Anderson 1-1 0-0 2, Gavin Chouinard 0-1 0-0 0, Jackson Barrett 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 15-40 12-18 47. 3-point goals 5-17 (Beyl 2-5, Reynolds 1-1, Hickey 1-2, Cripe 1-3, Smith 0-2, Wells 0-3, Chouinard 0-1). Rebounds 18 (Hickey 5). Fouls 13. Blocks 7 (Hickey 3, Epperly 2, Beyl 2). Turnovers 8.