After trailing at halftime, the Helena Bengals outscored the Flathead Bravettes 28-15 in the second half for a comfortable 46-34-win Saturday afternoon. 

Bengals’ McKenna Pipinich led all scorers with 17 points, while freshman Lauryn Lieberg added 16. Lieberg’s pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter gave her team its first lead of the game and they never looked back.

“I think in that third quarter we got a little bit tired and ran out of steam,” Flathead coach Kaylee Fox said. “We had to ask a lot of our players in these last two games, and I think we just got a little bit winded in the second half.” 

The Bravettes (1-5 overall, 0-2 conference play) only scored 14 points in Friday’s matchup and were able to match that total in the first quarter before taking a 19-18 lead into the break.

After the break, the Bengals (3-3 overall, 1-1 conference play) full-court press gave the Bravettes a lot of trouble and forced them into errant passes and 10-second violations. The Bengals opened the third quarter with a 9-0 run, before Ava Malmin’s 3-pointer with five minutes left cut the lead to 27-22.

Malmin led the Bravettes with 11 points, including three 3-pointers. Mattie Thompson added nine points, with seven of those coming in the first quarter. 

“We felt good about scoring the basketball a little bit more today, but we had a bunch of turnovers that we need to clean up,” Fox said. “Even if we are shooting the ball well, it is going to be hard to win games in AA with that many turnovers.”

Playing on a back-to-back and without starter Sami Dalager, the Bravettes used a six-man rotation, with freshman Makenna Aldrich and sophomore Gracie Mae Kilmer logging minutes.

The full court press and lack of bodies became too much for the Bravettes to overcome in the second half.

The Bravettes are hoping to have Dalager back next week.

“We are going to ask in our practices that we go game speed as much as possible and ask the JV kids to really put pressure on our varsity team and hopefully learn to handle that pressure a little bit better,” Fox said. 

Flathead heads to Idaho to face Bonners Ferry for a 5 p.m. matchup on Tuesday.  

Helena    9    9    19    9    —    46 

Flathead    14    5    7    8    —    34 

HELENA — Addi Rousch 2 1-2 5, Morgan Koch 1 1-2 3, McKenna Pipinich 7 3-6 17, Dakota Lieberg 1 0-0 2, Lauryn Lieberg 5 4-6 16, Cassidy Smith 1 0-0 2, Grace Murgel 0 1-2 1 Kortney McKay 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 10-18 46. 

FLATHEAD — Teagan Flint 2 0-0 4, Gracie Mae Kilmer 0 0-0 0, Taylor Greene 1 0-0 3, Caitlin Converse 1 0-0 2, Ava Malmin 4 0-4 11, Grace Gall 2 1-2 5, Mattie Thompson 3 2-2 9 Makenna Aldrich 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 3-8 34.    

3-point field goals — Helena 2 (L. Lieberg 2) Flathead 5 (Malmin 3, Greene, Thompson) Fouls — Helena 12, Flathead 15. Fouled out — none.