Keeping Score: Valley basketball teams struggle, standout performances and playoff push begins

Welcome everybody to another episode of the Keeping Score podcast presented by Corwin Motors, this week we have basketball and more basketball as swimming and wrestling have ended, so without further ado let’s get into this week's hoop highlights. 

We are going to kick things off right away with my game of the week between the Flathead Braves and Helena Capital that ended in heartbreak. Capitals Dylan Almquist beat the buzzer with a layup high off the glass to give Helena Capital a 57-55 victory over Flathead on Saturday.  

The Braves used a 7-0 run to tie the game up at 55 with 48 seconds remaining. 

Korbin Eaton missed a chance to put the Braves ahead with 10 seconds on the clock and a tie-up on the rebound gave possession to the Bruins. Almquist went coast-to-coast in 6.6 seconds to send Capital home with a weekend sweep in Kalispell. 

In Friday’s matchup, Helena High used a big third quarter to propel them to an 81-51 win over the Braves. Helena outscored the Braves 30-9 in that third quarter.  

Brodee Zahn led Flathead with 16 points; Lyric Ersland came off the bench to score 11.   

For the Bravettes, Helena High’s Madi Todorovich scored 16 points, all of them in the first half Friday as the Lady Bengals beat Flathead 51-38. Mattie Thompson, Grace Gall and Caitlin Converse all scored eight points for Flathead. 

Saturday’s matchup was another great game between Capital and Flathead with the game being decided by 1-point. Flathead built leads of 24-16 and 36-31 in the first half and led 44-37 after Grace Gall’s 3-pointer at 2:11 of the third quarter. Then the Bravettes went cold, not getting another field goal until Sami Dalager scored at the final buzzer.   

Glacier Wolfpack boys and girls teams had busy weeks, with each of them playing three opponents.  

Tuesday night in Glacier’s boys basketball loss to the Sentinel, the Spartans made 17 of 19 from the free throw line to pick up a road win at the Wolf Den 48-41.  Sentinel’s two-headed tandem of Lincoln Rogers and Carson Towe combined to go 15 of 15 from the line while the Wolfpack went 5 of 10.   

Liam Ells led the Pack with 15 points.Friday night another close game where Glacier came just short in a 56-52 loss to Capital.  

Glacier had tied the game at 46-all on Asher Knopik’s 3-pointer with 3:32 left in the game, then again when Carter Knopik scored. But some costly turnovers and made free throws by Capital but the game out of reach. Cooper Pelc and Slate Burrington had 10 points each to lead the Pack. Asher Knopik added nine.   

Saturdays game with Helena the Bengals took a 36-19 halftime lead and won the game 57-41. Liam Ells scored 12 points for the Wolfpack; he hit both his 3-pointers and scored eight points in the fourth quarter. Asher Knopik and Luke Nikunen added 11 points each for Glacier. 

Moving on to Wolfpack girls, they also lost another heartbreaker to Sentinel on Tuesday, 58-54. Down 27-23 at the break, the Wolfpack took their first lead of the game four minutes into the third quarter and the game seemed to be shifting in the home team's favor.  Karley Allen led the Pack with 15 points, all of them coming from beyond the arc in a game where she was feeling flu-like symptoms.  

I was at this game and every time the Pack made a run, Sentinel would answer right back, and the game wasn’t decided until the end. Great effort by both teams. 

On Friday the girls bounced back with a win over the Bruins 46-43 behind Reese Ramey’s 16 points. In the game with a lot of lead changes, with 1:06 left, Ramey used a pick and drained a three to put the Pack ahead for good, 43-41. She would hit 3 of 4 free throws in the final 23 seconds to seal the win. 

Saturday, the middle quarters weren’t kind to the Glacier girls basketball team, and neither was the free throw line in their loss to Helena high 70-53. Reese Ramey had a game-high 19 for Glacier who missed 15 free throws, while Karley Allen and Allie Krueger both added 12 points. 

Bigfork boys had their first game of the week on Thursday in a matchup with Ronan where they lost a close battle to the Chiefs 51-45 in a game that went to double overtime.  

Austin Savik did all he could for the Vikings, scoring 35 of the team’s 45 points, including four 3-pointers.  

That was the only matchup of the week for the Vikings and there was nothing on the schedule for the Valkyries so if we happen to miss a game, please let us know. 

Moving on to Whitefish, the boys lost their Tuesday matchup with Browning, 53-46. Whitefish were outscored 34-14 in the second half after Browning took their first lead of the game with just under 5 minutes remaining. Cj Thew led the bulldogs with 14 points and Carson Gulick added 11.  

Thursday Cooper Dudley scored 23 points, Carson Gulick added 15 and Whitefish cruised to the Northwest A victory 51-26 over Libby.  

Saturday Whitefish’s Will Sisson led the Bulldogs with 32 points, including five 3-pointers. Cooper Dudley added 22 points, but it wasn’t enough as Frenchtown put up a whopping 94 points and won the game 94-71.  

Tuesday the girls were not able to get it done against Browning either, losing 69-59. Charlize Ullrich scored a team-high 15 for the Bulldogs and Reese Hudson added 12. 

Allie Shors scored 14 of her 17 points in the second half as Whitefish pulled away from Libby for a 46-36 Northwest A victory Thursday. Stella Frisbee and Charlize Ullrich added eight points apiece for the Bulldogs, who outscored Libby 28-18 in the second half. 

Columbia Falls boys had one game this week that was held on Friday against Browning. Jude Reevis scored 21 points for Browning who ruled the glass and free throw line to beat Columbia Falls 69-58, in a showdown of the top Northwest teams. Cooper Ross tried to stage a rally for the Wildcats with a team high of 24 points. 

The girls, however, did a pickup a win against Browning with Kierra Kemppainen hit five 3-pointers and scored 15 points for the Wildcats. Onnika Lawrence scored six of her 13 points in the third quarter and Taryn Borgen added 11.  

That is all the basketball I have for you this week as the season is winding down with the Western A play-in game being held this weekend on March 1st so be sure to check those out. Thank you to our sponsor Corwin Motors and for joining me this week, we will see you all next week on another episode of the Keeping Score podcast. 

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