Braves take down Pack; Glacier girls cruise

Not soon after the nightcap of Friday’s cross town basketball doubleheader tipped, Jaxson Olsen had a steal and driving layup to get Glacier off on the right foot.

Flathead then got the Wolfpack off its feet, scoring the next dozen points in what became a 62-48 win at Glacier’s gym.

Gabe Adams sandwiched two baskets around a Joston Cripe three, and Ezra Epperly threw down an alley-oop dunk off a pass from Ethan VandenBosch.

Then Cripe, who scored a game-high 22 points, hit another three off a VandenBosch steal and it was 12-2.

The Braves (3-2) never really looked back, scoring their first win in this series in five tries and salvaging a cross town split. In the opener the Glacier girls won 45-27.

“We wanted to push the tempo of this game,” first-year Flathead boys’ coach Dirk Johnsrud said. “We wanted to turn them over and I thought we did that. I was proud of our guys and how they played.”

A sparse but loud crowd upped the decibels when Glacier’s Keifer Spohnhauer hit a three at 4:25 of the third quarter, cutting the gap to 35-25. Olsen, who scored 17 points for the Pack, scored inside to draw his team to 39-32, but at the 1:11 mark VandenBosch drained a three, starting a 13-0 surge that bridged into the fourth quarter.

VandenBosch added 12 points and Hunter Hickey poured in 18 for the Braves, who were missing a couple key injured reserves in Tommy Wells and Joe Hansen.

The starting five more or less played the whole game – Cripe would have, but he missed a few minutes in the third after breaking a shoelace. Flathead ran a full-court trap before falling into a mix of zone defenses. The 6-foot-9 Epperly had three blocked shots and five boards to go with three fouls.

“As of right now our core five is really strong, and when we get in foul trouble that’s when things start to fall apart,” said Cripe, who also had three steals and five rebounds.

The rally that Missoula Big Sky and Missoula Hellgate put on the Braves – Flathead won both games narrowly – never materialized. Johnsrud used one timeout late in the third, and the visitors cruised.

“The key is to just be poised out there, and having a good idea what we’re going to do on offense,” Cripe said.

“These kids came out and just were locked in today,” Johnsrud said. “We’d failed in our first three games to put 32 minutes together. Overall this is the best game we’ve played.”

Glacier (1-4) shot better than 50 percent from the floor and did OK on the boards. The Pack didn’t get enough shots, perhaps, from the line (Flathead had a 22-4 bulge there) or the field.

“We were tentative,” Glacier coach Mark Harkins said. “We turned it over a little bit, but we just need to be more aggressive. When we get out and run and we go, play aggressive, we’re fine. We can’t have those five-point quarters.

“We’re going to meet this weekend and work on ways to get more aggressive offensively, and – we’ll be alright.”

Both boys’ teams are off until next week: Flathead is at Helena Capital Thursday, while Glacier is at Helena High.

Flathead 12 15 16 19 - 62

Glacier 5 13 14 16 - 48

FLATHEAD (3-2) - Ethan VandenBosch 3-9 4-4 12, Gabe Adams 3-7 2-4 8, Ezra Epperly 1-2 0-1 2, Hunter Hickey 5-8 7-7 18, Joston Cripe 5-10 9-10 22, Drew Lowry 0-1 0-0 0, Luke Leech 0-0 0-0 0, Connor Phillips 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Larson 0-0 0-0 0, Gavin Chouinard 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-37 22-26 62.

GLACIER (1-4) - Jaxson Olsen 7-9 2-2 13, Weston Price 2-7 2-4 7, JT Allen 0-3 0-0 0, Will Salonen 0-4 0-0 0, Keifer Spohnhauer 2-4 0-0 5, Connor Sullivan 2-2 0-0 6, Colin Presnell 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Hausmann 0-0 0- 0, Luke Bilau 3-3 0-1 6, Noah Dowler 1-2 0-0 2, Ty Olsen 2-2 0-0 5, Jackson Weber 0-0 0-0 0, Kayden Jassman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-36 4-7 48.

3-point goals - Flathead 6-12 (Cripe 3-6, VandenBosch 2-3, Hickey 1-3), Glacier 6-11 (Sullivan 2-2, Spohnhauer 1-1, T. Olsen 1-1, J. Olsen 1-1, Price 1-3). Rebounds - Flathead 26 (Adams 7),

Glacier 20 (Price 4, Allen 4). Fouls - Flathead 9, Glacier 18. Fouled out - none. Technical foul - Hausmann. Blocks - Flathead 3 (Epperly 3), Glacier 3 (J. Olsen, Bilau, Dowler). Steals - Flathead 10 (Adams 3, Cripe 3), Glacier 4 (Price 2). Turnovers - Flathead 15, Glacier 17.

Glacier girls 45,

Flathead 27

The opening act didn’t go well at all for the visitors, who saw the host Wolfpback girls get back-to-back threes from Kaylee Fritz to start a 12-0, second-quarter fun.

By the end, when Janessa Henson hit yet another three for Glacier (2-2), its lead was 23-10.

The gap grew to 32-15 on a basket by Ellie Keller at 2:51 of the third quarter, and another Keller three made it 40-22 with 2:55 left in the game.

Flathead, under new coach Sam Tudor, wants to press and run, but got out-pressed and outrun. Williams had 12 points and five steals; teammate Kenzie Williams filled up the score sheet with 13 points, eight boards and six steals.

“They’re a great team together,” Glacier coach Amanda Cram said of the tandem. “They work off each other and thrive. And they obviously include their teammates. They just want to be successful. It’s hard not to rally around them.”

The outcome wasn’t a major surprise to Williams.

“We’ve been practicing for them all week, so we were ready for them,” the senior guard said. “And we executed very well.

“They kind of play how we play, but we were ready. We had our JV practice as them and we knew what to do and got it done.”

Maddy Moy’s nine points led the Bravettes, who play host to Helena Capital Thursday. Glacier heads to Butte today to make up a game postponed from last week.

Flathead 5 8 4 10 - 27

Glacier 9 14 9 13 - 45

FLATHEAD (1-3) - Akilah Kubi 2-4 0-3 4, Maddy Moy 2-7 4-4 9, Molly Winters 0-1 1-2 1, Bridget Crowley 0-3 0-0 0, Kuyra Seigel 1-4 1-4 3, Kennedy Moore 0-3 0-0 0, Maddie Engle 0-0 3-4 3, Olivia Pate 0-1 1-2 1, Clare Converse 3-8 0-0 6, Macy Craver 0-0 0-0 0, Avery Chouinard 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 8-31 10-19 27.

GLACIER (2-2) - Sidney Gulick 1-1 0-0 2, Kenzie Williams 5-14 0-0 13, Emma Anderson 2-10 1-2 5, Ellie Keller 5-8 0-0 12, Kaylee Fritz 2-5 0-0 6, Bailey Gable 0-0 0-0 0, Janessa Henson 1-2 1-1 4, Bethan Sorenson 1-5 0-0 3, Kirsten Smith 0-3 0-0 0, Cameron Gilman 0-0 0-0 0, Cady James 0-0 0-0 0, Noah Fincher 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-47 2-3 45.

3-point goals - Flathead 1-12 (Moy 1-5), Glacier 9-18 (Williams 3-8, Keller 2-3, Fritz 2-4, Henson 1-2, Sorenson 1-2). Rebounds - Flathead 31 (Crowley 7), Glacier 32 (Anderson 9, Williams 8). Fouls - Flathead 10, Glacier 17. Fouled out - none. Steals - Flathead 9 (Kubi 2, Converse 2), Glacier 14 (Williams 6, Keller 5). Turnovers - Flathead 24, Glacier 15.