Sitting in the team room underneath the Flathead High School gym on Friday, Flathead boys basketball coach Fred Febach reflected on his team’s three-point loss to Helena Capital.

“The measure of a good team is the ability to bounce back,” he said.

The Braves answered their coach’s challenge Saturday, holding off a late charge by Helena High to earn a 59-53 win and avoid a two-game conference skid.

No one reflected Flathead’s resiliency more than junior guard Chandler Escalante. After being held scoreless on Friday and missing what would have been a game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer, Escalante bounced back with 12 points on Saturday, including nine in a 12-0 third-quarter run that gave the Braves the cushion they needed.

“The game yesterday was pretty disappointing,” Escalante said. “To be 0-for-whatever I was and to come back today, I had to have a good mindset. When they started to go in, I just got going and they all seemed easier.”

Febach said Escalante’s bounce-back performance was exactly what the team needed.

“He hit a couple threes in critical situations where they had just scored,” Febach said. “He also sparked us a couple times with a couple steals and some layups, so he really helped us today in that regard.

“That’s nice to see, because when a kid struggles the night before and steps back on the floor and plays like he did, he’s got to feel pretty good about himself after today.”

Escalante’s sharp-shooting helped Flathead (8-3 overall, 3-1 Western AA) extend its lead to 44-32 by the end of the third quarter, but Helena (5-6, 0-4) chipped away at its deficit in the fourth. After cutting Flathead’s lead to eight with 1 minute and 55 seconds remaining, the Bengals went on a 5-0 run to make it a one-possession game.

Flathead guard Matthew Tokarz missed a pair of free throws with 18.8 seconds remaining, but 6-foot-4 Flathead senior Shea Schroeder tipped the rebound back to Tokarz, who was immediately fouled.

“I was thinking if he misses we need to get the rebound, because at that time it was still a one-possession game, ” said Schroeder, who grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds. “I have a lot of faith in Tokarz to knock them down, but I knew I might need to keep the play going.

“I just crashed. Just luck of the draw I guess.”

Tokarz made his first foul shot on his second trip to the line to give the Braves a four-point lead. He missed the second, but Schroeder deflected the rebound out of bounds off Helena. Schroeder was fouled on the inbound pass and knocked down both free throws to ice the game.

“He’s our senior leader,” Febach said of Schroeder. “Him and Tokarz are my two team captains who were starters last year, so we rely heavily on those guys to do some of the little things we need to do.”

Six-foot-8 center Garth West led Flathead with 16 points. Point guard Blaine Newman finished with 11 points and five assists.

Guards Chase South and Troy Arntson led Helena with 16 and 14 points, respectively.

While it was nice to bounce back with a win, Escalante said the Braves have plenty of things they need to work on, particularly finishing stronger in the fourth quarter.

“We put up some big shots and made some big stops,” he said. “But I also feel that the team as a whole is starting to get a bit frustrated with the fact that we can’t finish, but we’re going to work on it.”

Febach said the Braves also need to start stronger. Flathead trailed 20-10 early in the second quarter before going on a 12-2 run to knot the score at 22.

“Once we got into the flow of the game, I thought we did a really nice job of building momentum,” he said. “Finally establishing the lead and actually building on the lead. Up until the last part where we started to get a little helter-skelter out there, we did really well.

“As compared to last night, I thought tonight we did a much better job of looking for certain guys in certain spots.”

The Braves host crosstown-rival and No.1-ranked Glacier on Tuesday. Glacier (10-2, 3-1) suffered its first conference loss on Saturday against Helena Capital.

Helena High 17 7 8 21 — 53

Flathead 10 14 20 15 — 59

HELENA HIGH — Chase South 4-9 7-9 16, Troy Arntson 5-10 0-0 14, Dawson Reardon 1-7 5-8 8, Henry Garrett 3-6 0-2 6, Garth Grimsrud 2-5 1-2 5, Derek Jeneskens 1-5 0-0 3, Kyle Cochran 0-0 1-2 1, Dustin Pickens 0-3 0-2 0, Zayne Temple 0-3 0-2 0.

FLATHEAD — Garth West 5-9 4-9 14, Chandler Escalante 4-8 2-2 12, Blaine Newman 3-7 4-7 11, Will Cronk 4-5 0-0 9, Shea Schroeder 1-4 4-9 6, Matthew Tokarz 2-7 1-4 5, Adam Bradley 0-0 2-2 2, Kaleb Cannaday 0-1 0-0 0, Matt Quist 0-0 0-0 0.

3-point goals - Helena 7-19 (Arntson 4), Flathead 4-10 (Escalante 2, Newman, Cronk). Rebounds - Helena 37 (Garrett 9, Pickens 7, Reardon 6), Flathead 32 (Schroeder 13, West 6, Bradley 4). Assists - Helena 6 (South 2, Temple 2), Flathead 16 (Newman 5, Cronk 3). Blocks - Helena 1 (Garrett), Flathead 1 (West). Steals - Helena 9 (Arntson 3, Temple 2), Flathead 11 (Newman 4, Schroeder 4). Turnovers - Helena 19, Flathead 14. Team fouls - Helena 27, Flathead 21. Technical fouls - none. Fouled out - Grimsrud, Reardon.