Braves win war of attrition
Flathead’s Brock Osweiler pulls down a rebound between Helena Capital’s Brian Nickel (34), Marcus Rowan and Clay Bignell (42) during the first half of Thursday night’s game at Flathead High School. Osweiler finished with the game with seven points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots in the Braves’ 48-46 victory over the Bruins. Craig Moore/Daily Inter Lake
When Flathead took on Capital in Helena earlier this month, the Braves came out and had their worst offensive performance of the season.
Scoring only 15 first-half points, Flathead was down 31-15 after two quarters and lost 52-37.
Facing a must-win game on Thursday, the Braves had to be worried when six of their first seven shots went awry and Capital opened up an 8-4 lead. But the Braves eventually got going from long distance, and had just enough offense to best the Bruins, 48-46, on Flathead's Senior Night.
Senior Jeremy DeHerrera helped lead the way in the win, scoring nine of his 13 points in the second half. He also shot 4-of-4 from the foul line in the final 2:14.
"I came through tonight, but a lot of people stepped up for us," DeHerrera said. "It was a total team effort."
Geoff Hogan also got hot late, scoring nine of his 13 points in the fourth quarter. With time winding down, Brock Osweiler (7 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocked shots) found Hogan underneath the basket for a layup, giving Flathead a 44-38 lead with 1:26 remaining.
"The shots weren't falling from the outside early, so they (Capital) were able to collapse inside," said Hogan, who added seven boards. "Then we hit some 3s, and the outside became more of a threat in the second half and it opened things up inside."
Flathead missed its first six 3-point attempts on the night before Beau Watkins finally hit one with 3:19 left in the first half. The team shot 1-for-9 (11 percent) from downtown in the opening 16 minutes and went into the locker room down 21-20.
"It's really hard to score against Capital," Hogan said. "They play great defense."
Fortunately, the Braves were able to play strong D as well, helping keep them in the game.
"The last time we played them, we got down early and then slowed down on both ends of the floor," Flathead coach Fred Febach said. "But we were able to stay aggressive on defense tonight even though it took a while for the offense to get going."
Clay Bignell scored a game-high 22 points for the Bruins, but no other Capital player reached double figures.
DeHerrera helped kick-start the Braves' outside attack when he hit a trey on the team's first possession of the second half. He added a baseline jumper 30 seconds later, and a Hogan layup gave the team a 7-0 run and a 27-21 lead with 5:10 left in the third quarter.
Mack Andrews (six points) would later add a pair of 3-pointers for the Braves.
"I knew we had to start somewhere," DeHerrera said. "I hit one, then Mack hit two big ones."
The win ended Flathead's three-game losing streak as the team improved to 7-4 in Western AA and 13-6 overall. The Braves finished the regular season 10-1 at home. It also kept the team in the hunt for the No. 2 conference spot and an automatic bid to the state tournament.
Flathead travels to Butte on Saturday in the regular season finale. A win over the Bulldogs will force a tie for second, but will give the Braves the coveted conference spot due to an earlier win over Butte.
"Tonight was the biggest game of the year for us, now Butte's the biggest game," DeHerrera said.
Note: Flathead's seniors - DeHerrera, Andrews, Watkins, Gary Rivers, Burk Schaible, Jason Russell and Richard Boggs - were honored in a pre-game ceremony.
BRAVES 48, BRUINS 46
Capital 11 10 8 17 - 46
Flathead 8 12 10 18 - 48
Capital - Corey Peterson 2-6 0-0 6, Marcus Rowan 3-10 0-0 9, Ryan Wilson 3-13 0-0 7, Casey Lamping 0-1 0-0 0, Brian Nickel 1-4 0-1 5, Clay Bignell 9-15 3-3 22, Brian Bignell 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 18-50 3-4 46.
Flathead - Beau Watkins 1-6 2-2 5, Gary Rivers 0-3 0-0 0, Mack Andrews 2-6 0-1 6, Jeremy DeHerrera 4-15 4-4 13, Burk Schaible 2-3 0-0 4, Richard Boggs 0-3 0-0 0, Brock Osweiler 3-6 1-1 7, Geoff Hogan 6-10 1-2 13. Totals: 18-52 8-10 48.
3-point goals: Capital 7-17 (Peterson 2-5, Rowan 3-8, Wilson 1-3, C. Bignell 1-1), Flathead 4-17 (Watkins 1-4, Rivers 0-2, Andrews 2-5, DeHerrera 1-5, Schaible 0-1). Rebounds: Capital 29 (Wilson 11), Flathead 25 (Osweiler 7, Hogan 7). Total fouls: Capital 16, Flathead 13. Fouled out: Nickel, C. Bignell.