AA hoops: Bravettes' Moy fights back from knee injury

She played in every game as a freshman, and as a junior was critical to the Flathead Bravettes’ first State AA basketball trophy in 15 seasons.

So when Maddy Moy went down with a torn ACL and meniscus at Gonzaga’s basketball camp in late June, she was determined not to stay down long.

Even if the doctors said otherwise.

“They said, ‘Minimum of six months,’ “ Moy remembered. “And I decided that was the maximum.”

On Jan. 6 she was back on the hardwood, playing a few closely monitored minutes in a home loss to Missoula Sentinel. As the season has gone on Moy has gotten more and more minutes, and the Bravettes — 14-4 heading into their Western AA Divisional game against Butte High Thursday — have won nine of their last 10.

A loss at powerful Missoula Hellgate aside, the Bravettes seem to be playing their best ball.

“We’ve had her full time the last two weeks,” Flathead coach Sam Tudor noted. “And it’s made a difference.”

“It was a grind to get back but it was worth it all in the end,” Moy said. “Because now I get to play basketball with my best friends.”

“I remember running one of our plays and I was coming across on what we call the ‘B cut,’ “ Moy recalled. “Someone threw a pass and I caught it and landed wrong and I knew right away. There was no contact, or anything — it was so simple. But I knew right away what had happened.”

Looking on was Tudor, Flathead’s third-year head coach. He hoped for the best, but a week later came the official injury report.

“It was a downer,” he allowed. “But the amazing thing about Maddy was she was just determined to get back and play basketball. Her doctor would tell you that her recovery was about the best he’s seen.”

Tudor had Moy on what he called a “pitch count” early. She scored four points in a home game against Hellgate on Jan. 28, but made her presence felt in other ways. At one point she stole the ball, drove in for a layup but was whistled for a charge.

She promptly stole the ball again, drew a foul and sank two free throws.

“I call this ‘Maddy 2.0,’ “ Tudor said.“I don’t know how exactly that works. But she’s come back as strong or even stronger on the court.”

Moy’s free throws put the Bravettes up 47-46 with 36 seconds left; they ended up winning 49-48 on Kennedy Moore’s outback at the buzzer.

It’s worth noting that before Moore got extremely warm at last year’s State AA, where Flathead took third, Moy was the team’s leading scorer. She’s averaging 6.9 points this season, which is fine: She thrives more on hustle and defensive plays.

That Hellgate victory was one of seven decided by five points or less. Credit a strong senior class, fortified by the Western AA’s top scorer in Moore, a 6-foot-2 junior.

“The biggest thing this senior class has going for it is their leadership,” Tudor said, noting all the tight victories. “All of that points to their experience, their Ieadership and their grit.”

Moy has signed to play basketball at Montana Western — the Bulldogs just lost in the Frontier Conference championship game Tuesday — for coach Lindsey Woolley. There was interest from other schools, but Woolley touched base right away after the injury.

“Coach said he really wanted me no matter what,” said Moy, who plans to study pre-med. “He just wanted me to recover and come back. I kind of just knew from there that was the place.”

The Bulldogs will get a defensive standout whose reach extends beyond her 5-foot-8 frame. A knee brace is ever present; the style remains the same.

“The only thing that’s maybe different is battling the mental game with my knee,” she said. “Other than that I don’t think anything has changed.”

The Bravettes are on a 33-10 tear the last two seasons. Moy and fellow seniors Akilah Kubi, Tali Miller and Avery Chouinard flank Moore in the starting lineup. It’s a quarter that has been together, by Moy’s reckoning, since third grade.

Tudor feared he might not get Moy back in the lineup until this weekend, if at all. It took him a while to get used to pulling the guard out of games because of her minutes restriction.

Then, at a practice a week or so ago, came a sign that things were going extremely well.

“I had forgotten she was injured,” Tudor said. “I left her on the court probably longer than I should . A lot of it is that I just forgot.

“I think we’ll see some big things out of her this weekend.”