CMR defense shuts down Flathead

Flathead's Dustyn Franchini-White (1) drives to the basket in the second quarter against Great Falls CMR inside Gene Boyle Gymnasium at Flathead High School on Saturday, Dec. 14. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Flathead's Korbin Eaton (33) drives to the basket guarded by Great Falls CMR's Dean Blair (24) in the first quarter inside Gene Boyle Gymnasium at Flathead High School on Saturday, Dec. 14. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Flathead's Lyric Ersland (13) drives into the paint for a shot in the first quarter against Great Falls CMR inside Gene Boyle Gymnasium at Flathead High School on Saturday, Dec. 14. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Flathead's Brodee Zahn (24) drives to the basket guarded by Great Falls CMR's Nate Reeves (3) in the first quarter inside Gene Boyle Gymnasium at Flathead High School on Saturday, Dec. 14. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Flathead's Noah Sonju (23) works under the basket against Great Falls CMR's Dean Blair (24) in the first quarter inside Gene Boyle Gymnasium at Flathead High School on Saturday, Dec. 14. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Flathead's Brodee Zahn (24) shoots a jumper in the paint guarded by Great Falls CMR's Brady Henzel (10) in the first quarter inside Gene Boyle Gymnasium at Flathead High School on Saturday, Dec. 14. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Flathead's Lyric Ersland (13) shoots from the corner in the second quarter against Great Falls CMR inside Gene Boyle Gymnasium at Flathead High School on Saturday, Dec. 14. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

Flathead's Korbin Eaton (33) drives to the basket in the second quarter against Great Falls CMR inside Gene Boyle Gymnasium at Flathead High School on Saturday, Dec. 14. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider

by JON ALLEN
Staff Writer | December 15, 2024 12:00 AM

Ben Cunningham hit four 3-pointers and scored 19 points as CMR forced 23 Flathead turnovers to win 64-42 in boys basketball Saturday at Boyle Gym.

“We knew that CMR was going to come out physical,” Braves head coach Dan Trageser said. “I thought they kind of set the tone early. I thought our kids came out a bit flat and it put us behind the 8-ball a little bit.”

Nate Reeves added 12 points for the Rustlers (2-0), who led wire-to-wire.

Lyric Ersland followed his 27-point performance against Great Falls Friday with 17 Saturday — including 8 of 11 from the foul line — to lead the Braves (1-1).

Flathead kept Dean Blair — who scored 16 points against Glacier Friday — to just three points and no made field goals. But three early Braves turnovers aided a 10-0 opening run for the Rustlers, spearheaded by six points from Reeves.

“It’s their physicality and their size,” Trageser said. “We have small guards, so it’s hard to replicate the length we are going to see on the perimeter in practice. It gave Dustyn and BZ (Brodee Zahn) some trouble, but credit to them, they kept battling.”

Flathead cut the deficit to 10-3 when Dustyn Franchini-White laid it in after a Korbin Eaton steal.

“We turned it over a bunch, but we forced a lot of turnovers too,” Trageser said. “It was the second chance opportunities and the easy runouts. Their turnovers were throwaways or dead balls, while ours were live ball turnovers which allowed them to get out and get some easy ones. We didn’t get a lot of easy ones.”

Cunningham found his shot late in the first, knocking down a pair of triples to give CMR a 22-6 lead after the first quarter.

Zahn closed the deficit to 22-10 for Flathead early in the second after he converted an and-one.

CMR took over from that point, outscoring the Braves 15-6 in the rest of the half for a 35-16 lead. Flathead had 15 giveaways in the first half.

Out of the half Ersland tried to get the Braves back into the game by scoring 12 in the third quarter, but CMR kept the lead around 20 throughout the frame.

The Rustlers grew the lead to 26 points in the fourth quarter on a jumper from Miles Duda.

Flathead now hits the road to take on Bozeman on Friday.

CMR 22 13 20 9 - 64

Flathead 6 10 17 9 - 42

GREAT FALLS CMR — Nate Reeves 5 2-2 12, Jonah VanTressell 3 0-0 7, Drew Etcheberry 0 0-0 0, Brady Henzel 2 1-2 6, Caleb Taylor 2 0-0 4, Ben Cunningham 7 1-2 19, Brady Pike 4 1-2 9, Dean Blair 0 3-4 3, Ruben Chevis 0 0-0 0, Roman Block 0 0-0 0, Carson Pike 0 0-0 0, Nick Donester 0 0-0 0, Miles Duda 2 0-0 4. Totals 25 8-12 64.

FLATHEAD — Dustyn Franchini-White 3 0-0 6, Cam Wells 0 0-0 0, Kaleb Sims 0 0-0 0, Ben Reichner 0 0-0 0. Lyric Ersland 4 8-11 17, Gabe St. Germain 1 3-3 5, Eli Coopman 0 0-0 0, Noah Sonju 0 1-2 1, Brodee Zahn 1 2-4 4, Colin Smith 0 0-0 0, Korbin Eaton 3 2-2 9.

3-point goals — CMR 6 (Cunningham 4, VanTressell, Henzel), Flathead 2 (Ersland, Eaton). Fouls — CMR 17, Flathead 11. Fouled out — St. Germain.