Pack dumps Bozeman; Bigfork, Polson bounced

The Glacier Wolfpack crashed the boards and crushed the ending, scoring seven straight points in the final 2:14 of a 43-38 win over Bozeman at the State AA girls basketball tournament Friday.

Glacier, which faces Missoula Hellgate in a 9 a.m. loser-out game at Schroyer Gym, was the lone area team to win a state tournament game Friday.

Polson’s boys lost to Frenchtown 51-47 in State A loser-out play, and Bigfork’s girls bowed out of the State B with a 48-43 loss to Malta.

Glacier 43, Bozeman 38

BOZEMAN ­­— The Wolfpack (12-12) advanced by ruling the boards 47-27. Ruling them the most was senior Aubrie Rademacher, who pulled down 20 rebounds to go with 15 points.

“She was incredible,” Glacier coach Amanda Cram said. “We didn’t want to go home today. We knew if we outworked Bozeman and stayed in it for 32 minutes and won the rebounding game we’d get to stay another day.”

Glacier trailed 20-13 early in the second quarter and 28-21 after Bozeman’s Addi Ekstrom bombed in a three at 2:50 of the third quarter. Ekstrom scored 21 points.

Rademacher cut the gap to 28-26 with a three-point play – off an offensive rebound – at the :28 mark of the third. On one fourth-quarter possession she rebounded four straight misses by teammates; she put the last back herself to knot the game at 28-all with 6:25 left.

Bozeman (10-14) got 3-pointers from Emily Williams and Ekstrom to go up 34-29, but Kaylee Fritz answered with a three for Glacier and Ellie Keller tied it back up with two free throws.

Another Rademacher offensive rebound led to two free throws that gave Glacier the lead for good, 38-36, with 2:14 remaining. Keller made a steal on Bozeman’s next possession and eventually Kenzie Williams scored with 1:08 left to make it 40-36.

Keller then hit three of four free throws in the final 38 seconds to cap the 7-0 run.

Williams finished with 11 points and eight rebounds. Keller had 10 points and Emma Anderson grabbed 10 boards.

Rademacher, Cram noted, had 22 rebounds according to the Glacier stat crew. That would eclipse the school record held by Cassidy Hashley.

“I’m just most impressed with our resiliency and keep our goal of playing Saturday in sight,” Cram said.

Glacier lost its two regular-season meetings with Hellgate, 61-39 and more recently, 59-51. The Knights lost to Helena Capital 48-36 in Friday’s semifinals.

Glacier 10 9 7 17 ­— 43

Bozeman 17 3 8 10 — 38

GLACIER — Ellie Keller 2 5-8 10, Aubrie Rademacher 5 4-5 15, Emma Andersaon 0 2-5 2, Kaylee Fritz 2 0-0 5, Kenzie Williams 4 2-2 11, J. Henson 0 0-0 0, Aubry Grame 0 0-0 0, A. Meyer 0 0-2 0. Totals 13 13-22 43.

BOZEMAN — Gabby Klein 0 1-4 1, Emily Williams 1 0-0 3, Lucy Child 0 3-5 3, Addi Ekstrom 8 2-2 21, Macy Mayer 2 1-4 6, Nicole D’Agostino 1 0-0 2, Payton Putnam 0 0-0 0, Cooper Knarr 0 2-4 2, Felicity Schott 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 9-19 38. 3-point goals — Glacier 4 (Fritz, Williams, Rademacher, Keller), Bozeman 5 (Ekstrom 3, Williams, Mayer). Fouls — Glacier 14, Bozeman.19. Fouled out – Child, Bozeman.

Frenchtown 51, Polson 47

BILLINGS — Colton Graham scored 20 points but the Polson Pirates still came up short against Frenchtown in a State A boys’ loser-out.

Up 33-28 after three quarters the Broncs pushed the lead to 44-32 midway through the fourth.

It was the fourth loss to the Broncs for Polson, which ended up 13-11. Graham added seven rebounds. Xavier Fisher and Jarrett Wilson added six points each for the Pirates.

Frenchtown (19-5) put three players in double figures, led by Zack Baker’s 15 points.

Frenchtown 13 12 8 18 — 51

Polson 9 10 9 19 — 47

FRENCHTOWN — Mason Pyron 1 1-2 3, Cade Baker 4 0-1 10, Devin Shelton 1 5-6 7, Zack Baker 5 4-7 15, Hank Rugg 1 4-7 6, Brandon Finley 3 4-6 10, Tim Arthur 0 0-0 0, Ben Larson 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 18-28 51.

POLSON — Colton Graham 9 1-5 20, Bo Kelley 1 1-1 3, Anton Lefthand 0 4-4 4, Jarrett Wilson 3 0-0 6, Ryker Wenderoth 1 1-2 3, Xavier Fisher 2 0-0 6, Braunson Henriksen 2 1-4 5, Trevor Lake 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 8-16 47.

3-point goals — Frenchtrown 2 (C. Baker 2, Z. Baker), Polson 3 (X. Fisher 2, Graham). Fouls — Frenchtown 17, Polson 24.

Malta 48, Bigfork 43

BUTTE — Isabella Santistevan knocked down a 3-pointer with 2:40 left to cut Malta’s lead to 44-43, but four opportunities to go ahead or tie the game went awry for the Vals.

Ansleigh Edgerton led Bigfork with 17 points, six rebounds and four steals. Emma Berreth added seven points and two steals. The Valkyries ended up 14-11.

The M’ettes (16-9), who missed four straight free throws with their lead 46-43, had 11 points from Kylee Nelson. Allison Kunze added seven points and eight rebounds for Malta. Kelbee Denham had nine points – all on free throws.

Bigfork 8 11 16 8 — 43

Malta 13 13 12 10 — 48

BIGFORK — Emma Berreth 3 1-4 7, Audrey Buenz 1 2-2 4, Ansleigh Edgerton 6 5-6 17, Isabella Santistevan 1 0-0 3, Ashton McAnally 1 2-2 4, Madison Chappuis 1 1-2 4, Scout Juneau 1 2-2 4, Callie Martini 0 0-0 0, Merideith Bedford 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 13-18 43.

MALTA — Kylee Nelson 4 2-2 11, Erica Smith 0 0-4 0, Kelbee Denham 0 0 9-10 9, Allison Kunze 2 3-6 7, Carly Garfield 2 2-4 6, Sidney Meeks 0 1-1 1, Justina Lamb 2 2-2 6, Kyliee Hunter 2 0-1 6, Addy Anderson 0 0-0 0, Maddie Williamson 1 0-0 2. Totals 13 19-29 48.

3-point goals — Bigfork 2 (Santistevan, Chappuis), Malta 3 (Hunter 2, Nelson). Fouls — Bigfork 18, Malta 15.