Hellgate boys dominate first half, beat Glacier
Glacier's Ty Olsen (5) knocks down a three in the first quarter against Missoula Hellgate in the Western AA Divisional Championship at Flathead High School on Saturday, March 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier's Kaidrian Buls knocks down a jumper in the fourth quarter against Missoula Hellgate in the Western AA Divisional Championship at Flathead High School on Saturday, March 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier's Carter Gulick (24) shoots against Missoula Hellgate's Cuinn Powers (34) in the fourth quarter of the Western AA Divisional Championship at Flathead High School on Saturday, March 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Missoula Hellgate's Donovyn Headswift (30) shoots in the third quarter against Glacier during the Western AA Divisional Championship at Flathead High School on Saturday, March 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier's Cohen Kastelitz (1) is fouled as he goes to the basket by Missoula Hellgate's Donovyn Headswift (30) in the first half of the Western AA Divisional Championship at Flathead High School on Saturday, March 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
The Missoula Hellgate Knights got a certain measure of revenge Saturday, beating Glacier 57-33 for the Western AA boys divisional basketball title at Flathead gym.
A little more than a week ago the Knights lost 67-62 on their home floor to the Pack; mindful of Glacier’s 3-point barrage in that game, Missoula Hellgate coach Jeff Hays figured to extend his zone defense and get after it.
Only to have Glacier take an 8-2 lead.
“I was really questioning myself,” Hays said.
From there until halftime, though, the Knights (17-4) outscored Glacier 34-7. A 36-15 halftime lead ballooned to 49-21 after three quarters. Connor Dick and Asher Topp scored 15 points each for Hellgate, and Donovyn Headswift added 11.
They combined for 28 in that first half.
“We shot real well when we played them last time,” Glacier coach Mark Harkins said (the Pack made 11 threes).
He then summed up the issue in one word.
“Tempo,” he said. “We need to run. We didn’t shoot as well, but we didn’t have as many opportunities and we turned the ball over more. They controlled tempo — they controlled everything tonight. They came out with the focus to get it done, and for whatever reason we didn’t play as well as we have been.”
Ty Olsen led Glacier with nine points; Cohen Kastelitz had seven points and six rebounds. Headswift’s seven boards out of that zone helped Hellgate to a 26-17 advantage on the glass.
“I know they ran it; we didn’t rep it very much,” Harkins said of the 3-2. “We talked about it and we should have repped it more, because we didn’t execute.”
The game wasn’t much to write home about, but the Pack (14-7) is taking the West’s No. 2 seed into the State AA tournament next week in Butte.
“We came into the weekend No. 3, we’re leaving No.2,” Harkins said. “We’ll focus on that.”
Hellgate 14 22 13 8 - 57 pf
Glacier 8 7 6 12 - 33
HELLGATE — Connor Dick 7-10 1-2 15, Mario Rosemond 2-5 2-2 6, Donovyn Headswift 4-7 3-4 11, Easton SAnt 2-11 0-0 4, Asher Topp 4-4 5-5 15, Leo Filardi 2-2 1-2 5, Chance McNulty 0-4 0-0 0, Cuinn Powers 0-1 0-2 0, Luke Hoppe 0-1 0-1 0, Parker Link 0-0 1-1 1. Totals 21-45 13-19 57.
GLACIER — Cohen Kastelitz 3-8 1-2 7, Kaidrian Buls 2-5 0-0 6, Noah Dowler 1-3 0-0 3, Adam Nikunen 0-5 0-0 0, Ty Olsen 4-5 0-2 9, Tyler McDonald 1-4 2-2 4, Xavier Stout 0-1 0-0 0, Jeff Lillard 0-1 0-0 0, Travys Agan 1-3 0-0 2, Wyatt Cox 1-1 1-1 3, Carson Gulick 0-2 0-0 0, Ben Winters 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-38 4-7 33.
3-point goals — Hellgate 2-6 (Topp 2-2), Glacier 3-13 (Buls 2-4, Olsen 1-1). Rebounds — Hellgate 26 (Headswift 7), Glacier 17 (Kastelitz 6). Fouls — Hellgate 13 Glacier 15. Blocks — Hellgate 1 (McNulty 1), Glacier 3 (Kastelitz, Dowler, Olsen). Steals — Hellgate 7 (2 with 2), Glacier 4 (Olsen 2). Turnovers — Hellgate 8, Glacier 18.
