Raptors hold off feisty Flathead boys
Flathead's Luca Zoeller (32) looks to shoot in the first half against Gallatin at Flathead High School on Friday, Dec. 17. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Flathead's Lyric Ersland (31) drives to the basket past Gallatin's Eli Hunter (3) in the first half at Flathead High School on Friday, Dec. 17. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Flathead's Gavin Chouinard (13) drives to the basket against Gallatin's Tyler Nansel (32) at Flathead High School on Friday, Dec. 17. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Flathead's Drew Lowry (5) drives to the basket against Gallatin's Logan Springer (4) in the first half at Flathead High School on Friday, Dec. 17. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Flathead's Noah Cummings (10) dribbles past Gallatin defender Noah Pickard (23) in the first half at Flathead High School on Friday, Dec. 17. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Flathead's Joe Hansen (33) looks to shoot over Gallatin's Rylan Schlepp (50) at Flathead High School on Friday, Dec. 17. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
The Gallatin Raptors seized the halftime lead and kept it, but Flathead was able to put a little doubt in the visitors’ minds toward the end Friday, before falling 58-52 in nonconference boys basketball.
Down 53-44 with 4:52 left in the game, the Western AA Braves (0-3) scored the next six points — starting with a Noah Cummings three and ended with Drew Lowry’s basket off a steal and dish by Gavin Chouinard — to close the gap.
Down just 53-50, Flathead had a couple chances to get closer, following a couple misses by Raptors shooter Eli Hunter. They turned it over both times, though, and when Hunter missed a drive off his own steal, teammate Quinn Clark was able to put the rebound back.
That made it 55-50 with a minute left, and basically sealed it.
“They played extremely hard,” Flathead coach Dirk Johnsrud said of his charges. “One thing we wanted to improve on was our turnovers, from last week. We did that. It’s still a little bit too high, but we’re improving.
“We wanted to win the rebounding battle tonight, and we did that. Overall just happy with how hard our kids played and how they competed today.”
Some full-court pressure in the final 3:30 turned up the heat on Gallatin, but not quite enough happened. Chouinard scored seven of his 14 points in the final quarter as the Braves fought back.
“He had a good game,” Johnsrud said. “I thought he just made plays for us all game. He hit some threes, looked to pass, and had some nice steals.
Drew Lowry added 11 points, and Cummings and Luca Zoeller tallied nine each.
Hunter had a game-high 15 for the Eastern AA Raptors, including four 3-pointers. Tyler Nansel had 14 and Clark finished with 11.
Flathead plays Saturday morning against Bozeman, at 10:30 a.m., again at the Flathead gym. The Raptors tip off at the same time across town at Glacier.
Gallatin 17 18 9 14 - 58
Flathead 15 11 11 15 - 52
GALLATIN — Garrett Dahlke 1 1-3 3, Eli Hunter 5 1-2 15, Quinn Clark 5 1-1 11, Tyler Nansel 3 6-6 14, Rylan Schlepp 2 2-2 6, Zad Rodarte 1 0-0 3, Logan Springer 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 13-16 58.
FLATHEAD — Drew Lowry 3 3-4 11, Noah Cummings 3 0-0 9, Joseph Hansen 3 0-0 6, Luca Zoeller 3 0-2 9, Gavin Chouinard 5 2-2 14, Lyric Ersland 1 1-2 3, Brody Thornsberry 0 0-0 0, Michael Manning 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 6-10 52.
3-point goals — Gallatin 7 (Hunter 4, Nansel 2, Rodarte), Flathead 8 (Cummings 3, Chouinard 2, Lowry 2, Zoeller). Fouls — Gallatin 14, Flathead 17. Fouled out — Zoeller.
