Bravettes hold off Sentinel for trip to Western AA chipper

It was another tense victory for the Flathead Bravettes Friday, but with a wrinkle.

This time, in a 45-42 win over Missoula Sentinel in the Western AA girls basketball semifinals, they got the dominant stretch out of the way early. Then they held on for dear life.

When Sentinel guard Kassidy Kirgen’s three quarters-court heave banged off the backboard no good at the buzzer, Flathead (16-4) had a berth in next week’s State AA tournament in Butte.

Kennedy Moore had 25 points for the Bravettes, who also broke into Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. title game against Missoula Hellgate at the Flathead Gym.

The Knights (15-5) rode 14 fourth-quarter points from Chloe Larsen to a 46-37 win over Missoula Big Sky in the first semifinal.

Flathead 45, Sentinel 42

The Spartans (9-11) jumped ahead in the first half, with Lilly Allen’s coast-to-coast drive putting the tournament hosts in a 20-11 hole at 4:30 of the second quarter.

From there the Bravettes outscored Sentinel 29-9 — a dominant stretch that ended with Maddy Moy’s dish to Sami Dalagar — for a 40-29 Flathead with 6:14 left in the game.

The Bravettes didn’t score again until Moore hit two pressure-packed free throws for a 42-39 lead with 1:31 remaining; Avery Chouinard added two more with 25 seconds left, and Dalager hit one 10 seconds later.

It was a victory that, Moore aside, was hard to divine from the boxscore. Akilah Kubi fouled out with six points; Moy didn’t score; Flathead committed many of their 15 turnovers in the final 4 minutes.

But Moy also guarded Sentinel standout Emily McElmurry most the game; Moore grabbed her seventh and eight rebounds late.

“That’s a good team. Sentinel just played really well,” Flathead coach Sam Tudor offered. “Moy guarding McElmurry was probably one of the bigger dynamics of that game. Those are two of the best athletes in AA just going after it.

“We were on the better side of it, but that was fun to watch. We put a lot on Maddy, and she did it.”

McElmurry did get loose for 11 fourth-quarter points, and her step-through basket closed the gap to 40-39 with 1:40 left. She ended with 16 points.

“It did get a little tense,” said Moore, who had 26 points in Flathead’s 54-48 first-round win over Butte on Thursday. “Instead of turning the ball over this time, we called our timeouts. Kubi had a great timeout call when she couldn’t get off the sidelines.”

Dalager had six points in relief of Kubi.

“Big,” Moore said. “Big free throws, and just coming in and playing defense on Olivia Huntsinger. She’s a really strong player, but I think Sami just bodied her up. That’s huge, especially for a sophomore to come off the bench and do that.”

Huntsinger had seven points and eight rebounds for the Spartans, who can still make it to state with a win over Helena High Saturday morning. CC Size added 10 points.

Hellgate is seeking its third straight divisional title; Unofficially, Flathead hasn’t had one since the 2001 state championship squad.

But a second straight state tournament berth is assured.

“That’s a huge load off,” Tudor said. “I told the girls that this was pretty special for me. I’ve had some special teams, but this was a big one for me.”

Sentinel 8 14 5 15 - 42

Flathead 6 13 15 11 - 45

MISSOULA SENTINEL — Olivia Huntsinger 3-5 1-2 7 Kaitlyn Hammett 0-3 0–0 0, Emily McElmurry 5-13 6-9 16, CC Size 4-11 0-0 10, Kassidy Kirgan 1-6 0-0 3, Haley Wolsky 0-0 0-0 0, Lilly Allen 3-8 0-0 6, Monroe Matro 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-47 7-11 42.

FLATHEAD — Maddy Moy 0-7 0-2 0, Akilah Kubi 3-5 0-2 6, Kennedy Moore 9-19 5-6 25, AVery Chouinard 2-12 2-2 7, Tali Miller 0-0 1-2 1, Celie VandenBosch 0-1 0-0 0, Sami Dalager 2-2 2-4 6.

3-point goals — Sentinel 3-14 (Size 2-5, Kirgan 1-2), Flathead 3-14 (Moore 2-5, Chouinard 1-7), Rebounds — Sentinel 29 (Kirgan 10), Flathead 30 (Moore 8). Fouls — Sentinel 16, Flathead 13. Fouled out — Kubi. Blocks — Sentinel 2 (Huntsinger, Kirgan), Flathead 4 (Moore 2, Kubi, Moore). Steals — Sentinel 7 (Wolsky 2), Flathead 8 (Moore 3). Turnovers — Sentinel 14, Flathead 15.

Hellgate 46, Big Sky 37

The Eagles beat Hellgate on a last-second shot the last time the teams met, and trailed just 30-29 after an Avory DeCoite free throw with 5:26 left in the game.

Then Larsen — along with Alex Covill — took over. The duo scored 19 of the Knights’ 20 fourth-quarter points. It was Larsen’s 3-pointer at the 5:05 mark that started a 9-0 surge that put Hellgate in command.

Covill, who had 23 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocks, had a put-back of a Larsen miss in that run; Larsen scored down low to put the Knights up 39-29 with 3:24 left.

That basically sealed it.

DeCoite got to the line a ton and scored 19 points to lead to Big Sky.

Hellgate 9 7 10 20 - 46

Big Sky 10 6 7 12 - 37

MISSOULA HELLGATE — Alix Mund 0-2 0-0 0, Maddy Petrino 0-3 0-0 0, Alex Covill 9-15 5-7 23, Chloe Larsen 2-10 9-12 14, Carmen Anderson 1-2 2-4 4, Shannon Kane 1-4 0-1 2, Gianna Passuccio 0-1 0-2 0, Elly Reed 1-2 1-2 3. Totals 14-39 17-28 46.

MISSOULA BIG SKY — Sadie McGuinn 1-3 1-2 3, Audrey Hale 2-7 1-2 5, Gianna Janacaro 1-2 0-0 2, Kaydynce Couture 0-7 8-10 8, Avory DeCoite 4-16 10-18 19, Kyler Latrielle 0-4 0-0 0, Delaney Laird 0-0 0-0 0, Dakota Belarde 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 8-39 20-34 37.

3-point goals — Hellgate 1-8 (Larsen 1-1), Big Sky 1-13 (DeCoite 1-5). Rebounds — Hellgate 34 (Covill 15), big Sky 23 (Couture 8). Fouls — Hellgate 24, Big Sky 23. Fouled out — Mund, Kane, Janacaro). Blocks — Hellgate 7 (Covill 7), Big Sky 2 (Laird, Couture). Steals — Hellgate 6 (Larsen 3), Big Sky 13 (Hale 5). Turnovers — Hellgate 17, Big Sky 14.