Bravettes find a way

The Flathead Bravettes were up against it Thursday evening, trailing 47-40 to a feisty Butte squad intent on serving up the Western AA Divisional’s biggest upset.

Instead Flathead scored 14 of the game’s final 15 points, riding hustle plays and free throws to a 54-48 win and into Friday’s 5 p.m. semifinal game at its own gym.

In other words, a typical Bravette victory.

“It’s like it’s super tight, and then at the last three, two minutes, we pull away,” said Flathead junior Kennedy Moore, who scored 26 points. “I think we kind of buckle down and really want the win.”

Flathead (15-4), the No. 2 seed, will take on sixth-seeded Missoula Sentinel in the late semifinal. The Spartans grinded out a 39-32 win over Capital to improve to 9-10.

That was before Butte (5-14) came out firing. The Bulldogs scored the last six points of the first half to lead 28-26, and then 13 straight bridging the fourth quarter to break in front by seven.

Two 3-pointers by eighth-grader Cadence Graham and another by Emmarrie Richards had Butte 45-40, and got Flathead briefly out of its zone defense.

Dylann Bartoletti’s backdoor cut for a layup made it 47-40 with 5:29 left.

“I have to give it to Butte, they had a great game plan and they executed it,” Flathead coach Sam Tudor said. “And I have to give it to my girls, because they didn’t panic and stuck in there. Their physical caliber of play kind of got to butte at the end. I was proud of that. The rebounding was a tough one for us. That was the talk at halftime.”

“I would like to see their steal count, because they had a lot,” said Moore. “They played tough, tougher than we’d seen them for sure. That eighth grader, she came out of nowhere. We were like, ‘What in the world?’”

Graham finished with 17 points. Laura Rosenleaf added 15, plus seven rebounds.

Moore grabbed 10 boards; Butte ruled the glass 17-8 in the first half but ended up losing that battle, and the game.

Moore hit three 3-pointers and had 15 points in the first half. She had nine big points in the fourth quarter, including two free throws to put Flathead up 49-48 with a minute left.

“She can score a bunch of different ways, and that was cool to see,” Tudor began. “She started out at the 3-point line, but once she started getting inside and started to get to the free throw line, that’s when we started to creep back into it.”

And win it — the Bravettes’ last 12 wins have been by eight points or less.

“We’ve got to move forward right now,” Tudor said. “We have a big one tomorrow night.”

Sentinel and Flathead split their regular-season meetings, each winning on the other’s home court.

Butte 10 18 11 9 - 48

Flathead 11 15 14 14 - 54

BUTTE — Brityn Stewart 1-7 0-0 2, Emmarie Richards 4-10 0-0 10, Laura Rosenleaf 6-10 3-6 15, Caden Graham 3-11 8-8 17, Brooke Groesbeck 0-0 0-0 0, Payton Clary 0-1 0-0 0, Dylann Bartoletti 1-2 0-0 2, Ellie Quist 0-0 0-0 0, Taylor Bushman 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 16-42 11-14 48.

FLATHEAD — Maddy Moy 2-6 1-2 5, Akilah Kubi 3-8 3-6 9, Kennedy Moore 9-12 5-6 26, Avery Chouinard 2-7 5-6 10, Tali Miller 1-2 0-0 2, Celie VandenBosch 0-1 0-0 0, Sami Dalager 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 18-40 14-20 54.

3-point goals — Butte 4-18 (Graham 3-9, Richards 2-6), Flahtead 4-9 (Moore 3-4, Chouinard 1-3). Rebounds — Butte 27 (Rosenleaf 7), Flathead 28 (Moore 10). Fouls — Butte 15, Flathead 10. Blocks — Butte 1 (Bartoletti), Flathead 2 (Moore 2). Steals — Butte 10 (Rosenleaf 5), Flathead 8 (3 with 2). Turnovers — Butte 19, Flathead 15.

Sentinel 39, Capital 32

The Spartans outscored Capital 7-1 over the last three minutes of this one, starting with a put-back by Haley Wolsky that put Sentinel up 34-31.

From there the Bruins missed quite a few shots — Olivia Huntsinger picked up her fourth black in there — while the Spartans made 5 of 10 free throws.

Emily McElmurry’s freebie with 23 seconds left made it 36-32 and took some pressure off; she finished with 14 points — including three 3-pointers — and had seven rebounds. Huntsinger had eight points and seven boards.

Jade Clarkson had 10 points for Capital.

Sentinel 15 4 11 9 - 39

Capital 12 2 15 3 - 32

MISSOULA SENTINEL — Kaitlyn Hammett 2-3 0-0 5, Kassidy Kirgan 1-2 1-2 3, Olivia Huntsiger 2-7, CC Size 2-7 1-2 6, Emily McElmurry 5-10 1-5 14, Haley Wolsky 1-1 1-2 3, Monroe Mastro 0-4 0-0 0, Lilly Allen 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 14-35 6-18 39.

HELENA CAPITAL — Jada Clarkson 4-16 2-2 10, Kathryn Emmert 2-9 1-2 7, Megan Swanson 2-9 0-0 4, Kayla Almquist 1-4 0-0 3, Gracie Mockel 1-4 0-0 2, Anna Cockhill 1-3 0-0 3, Abby Bignell 0-0 1-2 1, Kate Drynan 0-0 0-0 0, Katie Sheridan 0-1 0-0 0, Taylor Sayers 0-2 2-2 2, Brooklyn Brisco 0-2 1-2 1. Totals 11-50 7-10 32.

3-point goals — Sentinel 5-15 (McElmurry 3-6, Hammett 1-2, Size 1-3), Capital 3-21 (Emmert 2-8, Almquist 1-3). Rebounds — Sentinel 30 (Huntsinger 7, McElmurry 7), Capital 27 (Mockel 9). Fouls — Sentinel 2, Capital 17. Blocks — Sentinel 4 (Huntsinger 4), Capital 2 (Emmert, Swanson). Steals — Sentinel 7 (Wolsky 3), Capital 7 (Cockhill 2). Turnovers — Sentinel 18, Capital 12.