Kubi, Bravettes grow into Western AA power

Akilah Kubi, when asked how tall she is, replied: “Five-foot-9.”

Then she added, “But you can write 5-10.”

Height aside, the senior forward for the Flathead Bravettes is 100 percent legit — a force at both ends of the court who is second on her team in scoring (8.9 points per game) and rebounding.

She’s also a big part of a renaissance in the program. The Bravettes won just 18 games over four seasons before they ascended to a 19-win season in 2021-22, culminating in a third-place trophy at the State AA tournament.

This year’s senior class played key roles: Maddy Moy, Avery Chouinard, Tali Miller and of course, Kubi. The four of them for most part have been around since grade school. Kubi said she and Moy go back to second grade.

“Everyone’s always said we were a growing team,” Kubi said Wednesday, on the eve of Thursday’s Crosstown doubleheader with Glacier (the girls tip off at 6 p.m.). “All of us seniors have been playing together for so long.”

With progress comes growing pains: Kubi and Moy began getting big minutes as freshmen in 2019-20, but the results weren’t often pretty.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t say we were a bad team,” Kubi said of that 4-win campaign. “We were playing in a really tough conference, with the Bartsch girls (Dani and Paige of Helena Capital), and a lot of them are D-1 now.

“We were freshmen on the varsity, but it just really helped us in the end.”

The following year Sam Tudor took over as Flathead’s coach and had to deal with Capital (the eventual State AA champs), Missoula Hellgate (the runner-up) and managed a 2-13 mark.

Then came last season, and Flathead won its first 10 games.

“That was a big surprise,” Kubi said. “We did not think we were going to be that good. We didn't really know where we stood.”

The 11th game was a classic lesson: Hellgate pinned a 58-22 loss on the Bravettes.

“We had a major learning moment,” Kubi said. “It was honestly good that we lost, because we were a little bit cocky, and we got humbled.”

Hellgate would beat the Bravettes twice more last season, as the Bravettes struggled to score against the taller Knights. But at the State AA they followed up a first-round loss with three straight wins and their first trophy in 15 seasons.

That’s the Cliff’s Notes version of getting us to this point: Flathead is 12-3 and on an eight-game win streak going into tonight’s showdown against Glacier High.

The humbling came early this season, 47-28 at Capital on Jan. 14.

“We thought we were going to go 10-0 off the bat again,” Kubi said.

Flathead’s improved play — including a 49-48 win over Hellgate, snapping the Knights’ 10-game win streak in the series — since then can be partly attributed to Moy’s return from a summer knee injury. Moy helps; so does Chouinard’s shooting, Miller’s rebounding and junior Kennedy Moore’s outstanding all-around play.

Moy was injured while the team played at a Gonzaga University camp; it was also there that Kubi, pressed into taking more responsibility in Moy’s absence, really shined.

“Moy went down, and Kubi came in and found another gear,” Tudor remembered. “It’s pretty cool.”

Stuck around the basket early on both ends of the court, Kubi now describes herself as “mid-range:” She shoots from the elbow; she ranges out to the wings on defense, depending on what zone Flathead employs.

Westcliff University, an NAIA school out of Irvine, Calif., noticed. Kubi committed to the Warriors in December.

To hear Tudor tell it, they’re getting a good one.

“Her basketball IQ, the last few years, because she’s played so much, has gotten better and better,” he said. “And she’s hitting her free throws.”

And not picking up fouls she did earlier in her career. Tudor moving her out of the middle on defense (not to mention offense) has coincided with her scoring, rebounding and staying on the court more.”

“She’s such a leader,” he said. “And she can rebound so well. Rebounding, especially in tight games, is one of her more important skills. Some of the rebounds she’s had this year have been amazing.”

In a couple weeks, Flathead will host the boys and girls Western AA Divisional tournaments. The Bravettes lead a balanced conference, and are playing the best ball of late. Kubi obviously wants to see it keep going.

“I’m glad we kind of got our little fun out of the way early,” she said. “Now we know we have to go as hard as we can, no matter who we are up against.”