Big Sky girls hold off Glacier
JOSH AMICK | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 10 months, 1 week AGO
Glacier's Allie Krueger (20) shoots in the first quarter between Missoula Big Sky defenders at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Glacier's Madi Stevens (21) shoots in the first quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Glacier's Reese Ramey (22) shoots in the second quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Glacier's Cazz Rankosky (25) shoots in the second quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Glacier's Karley Allen (14) shoots in the first quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Glacier's Allie Krueger (20) shoots in the first quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Glacier's Reese Ramey (22) works for a shot in the second quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Glacier's Rylee Bigelow (2) knocks down a three in the second quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Glacier's Olivia Warriner (23) knocks down a three in the second quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
The Wolfpack may not have strength in numbers, but there certainly isn’t any quit in this team.
After trailing by 15 points late in the third quarter, the Glacier girls battled back to tie the game in the fourth, but the comeback attempt fell just short, losing to Big Sky at the Wolf Den 45-41 Tuesday night.
Big Sky came out the gates with more intensity, taking a 13-7 lead after one and 25-16 at the break. The Eagles (8-5 overall, 6-3 in Western AA) extended their lead to 32-17 in the third, before Glacier (6-6 overall, 4-4 in Western AA) coach Amanda Cram called a timeout and lit a spark under the team.
“If you aren’t going to show up on a Tuesday night, how can you expect to be ready for playoffs in March?”
Message received.
After the timeout the Wolfpack went on a 15-5 run, led by Madi Stevens’ seven points to close out the quarter and bring the gap to five, 37-32.
“I feel strongly that the team needs to be able to motivate themselves,” Cram said. “Coaches can be encouraging, but if I always have to be the one to light the fire, we aren’t going to win many games.
“I do appreciate how they responded, diving for loose balls, rebounding hard. Those little things helped us go on that run but sustaining that for four quarters has been difficult at times with our new identity being more post-reliant.”
That new identity is due to both Cassidy and Cadence Daniels being out for the season with torn ACLs. It was just the second game played without Cassidy, as the team is still trying to find the right rotations to fill the void of a 3-and-D starter.
Post players Allie Krueger and Stevens did just that, with Krueger leading the team with nine points and Stevens scoring all seven of her points in that third-quarter run.
It was Big Sky’s defense that posed the biggest problem, often sending two players all game at star guard Reese Ramey. Ramey was held to eight points after scoring 25 Thursday against Flathead.
“I expect teams going forward to put pressure on Reese both as a shooter and a distributor,” Cram said. “She can still create her own offense in a pinch, but as a team we can’t rely on that, the team needs to execute for all of us to be successful, whether or not Reese is on the court.”
Big Sky was led by Kenzi Schmitz and Kadynce Couture, who combined to score 31 points. Schmitz scored all 15 of her points in the first half and Couture carried the torch in the second half, scoring 10 of her game-high 16.
The game was tied 41 apiece with three minutes left before Couture was fouled and made one of two free throws. Glacier would go scoreless for the remainder of the game but weren’t out of it until the final whistle.
Down 44-41 with 24 seconds left, the Wolfpack missed a tying 3-point attempt, and the rebound was secured by Big Sky’s Tanya Kirilovich. With just under 10 seconds left, Kirilovich missed both free throws, but Couture was there again to secure the rebound.
She split her free throws to put the game out of reach.
“Kadynce is a phenomenal player, and we spoke all week about finding her because she is so sneaky around the rim,” Cram said. “There is no skill involved in being a rebounder, collectively we didn’t do a good job of finding her, finding Schmitz and denying them those second chance opportunities.”
The Wolfpack are on the road for their next four games, starting with Belgrade on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Big Sky 13 12 12 8 - 45
Glacier 7 9 16 9 - 41
BIG SKY — Kyler Latrielle 3 0-0 8, Lilly Johnson 0 0-0 0, Tanya Kirilovich 1 0-2 3, Tina Kirilovich 0 1-2 1, Kadynce Couture 6 4-7 16, Kenzi Schmitz 6 3-4 15. Totals 17 8-14 45.
GLACIER — Rylee Bigelow 1 0-0 3, Karley Allen 1 0-0 3, Allie Krueger 4 1-1 9, Madi Stevens 3 1-2 7, Reese Ramey 3 0-0 8, Olivia Warriner 1 0-0 3, Cazz Rankosky 3 0-0 8. Totals 16 2-3 41.
3-point field goals — Big Sky 3 (Latreille 2, Tanya Kirilovich) Glacier 7 (Ramey 2, Rankosky 2, Allen, Bigelow, Warriner) Fouls — Big Sky 8, Glacier 14. Fouled out — none.
Glacier's Madi Stevens (21) shoots in the first quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)Casey Kreider
Glacier's Reese Ramey (22) shoots in the second quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)Casey Kreider
Glacier's Cazz Rankosky (25) shoots in the second quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)Casey Kreider
Glacier's Karley Allen (14) shoots in the first quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)Casey Kreider
Glacier's Allie Krueger (20) shoots in the first quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)Casey Kreider
Glacier's Reese Ramey (22) works for a shot in the second quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)Casey Kreider
Glacier's Rylee Bigelow (2) knocks down a three in the second quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)Casey Kreider
Glacier's Olivia Warriner (23) knocks down a three in the second quarter against Missoula Big Sky at Glacier High School on Tuesday, Feb. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)Casey Kreider
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