Off night dooms Bravettes

A cold shooting night doomed the Bravettes as Missoula Sentinel toppled Flathead 46-29 in Western AA girls basketball action on Thursday at Flathead High School.

The Bravettes — normally strong from beyond the arc — managed just one 3-pointer in the entire game despite numerous open looks.

“It’s pretty rare for us,” Flathead coach Tricia Dean said.

“I actually thought that we got some decent looks, but just a tough shooting night for us all around.”

Taylor Henley was the bright spot offensively for Flathead (6-11 overall, 2-9 Western AA), burying the lone triple and scoring a game-high 16 points.

“She played aggressive, got some good shots up, went to the hoop ... really nice Senior Night for her,” Dean said.

Henley scored the game’s first three points to give Flathead its only lead at 3-0, then Sentinel (8-9. 4-7) clamped down defensively and used its size to dominate the Bravettes in the paint. The Spartans took a 10-3 lead into the second quarter.

But a manageable deficit quickly ballooned into an 18-point hole as Sentinel knocked down four triples and six Spartans scored in the frame.

“[After that] I felt like we just kind of crumbled defensively and then nothing was falling on our end,” Dean said.

“We weren’t moving our feet defensively ... We were getting out of our stance when we were playing off-ball defense and they were able to make some cuts and make some drives.”

Sentinel took a 30-13 lead into the half.

The Bravettes slowed the Spartans down in the second half, and went 8 of 10 from the free-throw line. But the team still couldn’t knock down open looks and only managed four field goals in the half.

Dean started and finished the game with all five of Flathead’s seniors, and she commended their effort on a tough Senior Night.

“I think that they played hard, and they gave us effort, and they showed some enthusiasm out there. Unfortunately we just couldn’t sustain that through the whole game,” she said.

For the Spartans, Lexi Deden led the way with 12 points, and Challis Westwater added 10. Sandee Sepulveda had six points on two 3-pointers in the second quarter.

Thursday’s result solidifies Flathead as the No. 6 seed for the Western AA Divisional tournament next weekend in Kalispell.

“I think that we need to gain some momentum going into divisionals,” Dean said.

“I was hoping that would happen tonight and I don’t think it necessarily did.”

Flathead has one more regular-season game left, Saturday at Missoula Hellgate (10-7, 6-5) at 4:15 p.m.

Missoula Sentinel 10 20 9 7 – 46

Flathead 3 10 8 8 – 29

MISSOULA SENTINEL — Ashley McElmurry 2, Sandee Sepulveda 6, Jayden Salisbury 2, Challis Westwater 10, Kodi Fraser 3, Lexi Deden 12, Sheridan Schweyen 4, Brooke Stayner 5, Maggie Weida 2.

FLATHEAD — Emily Lembke 4, Sadie Wilson 2, Clare Converse 2, Kayla Martin 3, Taylor Henley 16, Rebecca Eacker 2.