Glacier is going to state.
Led by Ben Cutler’s 18 points, Glacier High School’s boys basketball team defeated cross-town rival Flathead High School 66-44 in a regional playoff game at home on Thursday evening. Before the boys’ game, the Glacier girls lost their playoff game 62-57 to Helena High. The girls’ season is over.
The Wolfpack will play in the state tournament at 9 a.m. on March 12 against the winner of Eastern No. 3 Bozeman and Eastern No. 6 Billings Senior, who play Friday night. The state tourney will be held in Butte on March 12-14. Tournament seeding won’t be set until all of the playoff games are finished Saturday, but for now you can get an initial look at the bracket by clicking here.
Flathead, which came into the game with only a 3-17 record and the No. 7 seed in Western AA, battled second-seeded Glacier in the first half of Thursday’s game. At halftime, Glacier led only 28-23. But the heavily favored Wolfpack, who entered the game with a 14-6 record and No. 5 state ranking, outscored Flathead 24-11 in the third quarter to take a 52-34 lead into the final period. Flathead never got any closer.
To go along with Cutler’s 18 points, junior Shay Smithwick-Hann scored 13 points and senior mike Rasmussen added 10. Mike VanArendonk, a sophomore, led Flathead with 12 points, while Tanner Salois chipped in eight.
In the girls’ game, also held at Glacier High School on Thursday, Western AA’s fourth seed Glacier led the fifth-seeded Helena High Bengals for most or the first half before falling behind for good in the third quarter. Senior Lindsea Vaudt scored eight points in the first quarter and then handed over the scoring load to fellow senior Emily Hashley, who scored eight in the second quarter.
The game was tied at 29 at halftime.
In the second half Helena sophomore guard Jordan Briski scored five straight points with just under four minutes left in the third quarter to extend the Bengals’ lead from 37-36 to 42-36, which was the score at the end of the period. Led by Vaudt, the Wolfpack battled back in the fourth, cutting the deficit to one point at 46-45 with 3:52 remaining. But Glacier never led again.
Vaudt led Glacier with 18 points and Hashley had 15. Junior Kelsey Williams scored 18 for the Bengals and sophomore Monica Grimsrud scored 15 points. Briski finished with 13.
The Wolfpack ended their season with a 9-12 record. Helena, 10-11, moves on to play Eastern AA’s No. 1 seed Butte on March 12 at 8 p.m. at the state tourney in Butte. Like with the boys, the pairings aren’t all set, but here’s a glimpse at how the bracket will look.