Bozeman Daily Chronicle – Michael Applegate
The Hawks boys knew who Kalispell Glacier would turn to late Thursday afternoon.
They tried in earnest to deny entry passes to 6-foot-6, 260-pound Jaxen Hashley, who was a mismatch even when Bozeman deployed a double team.
Bozeman head coach Wes Holmquist called a timeout to set his defense after guard Drew Huse hit a pair of free throws to pull his team ahead, 61-59, with 1 minute, 12 seconds left. Nothing the coach diagrammed could contain Hashley.
The Montana State football commit elevated for a lob pass, muscled through two defenders, and his shot off the glass fell through as a whistle sounded for an and-one. Huse again earned a trip to the line and hit one of two, but Hashley responded. This time, he soared for an offensive rebound, drew defenders close, and again got his shot to drop and drew a foul.
Hashley’s six points in 20 seconds and game-high 23 lifted Glacier to a 66-62 road victory.
“I knew we didn’t have an answer for him and I knew we weren’t going to stop him,” Holmquest admitted.
“Our goal was to kind of try and front him and make him work.”
The strategy was implemented with success for the first 16 minutes, as Hashley missed six of eight attempts and tallied just five points.
Bozeman (4-1), meanwhile, was stifled by a Wolfpack zone anchored by Hashley and other big posts. The Hawks didn’t dare probe the paint, and instead settled for 3-pointers; they misfired on six of seven attempts from deep in the first quarter and were 5 of 17 by halftime.
Bozeman trailed the majority of the first half and 33-31 at intermission.
“We talked a lot at halftime about taking 17 3s. That’s too many,” Holmquist said. “With the way they play, you’re going to have to settle for a few more 3s. There’s nowhere else to go. … We wanted to overload the floor and get the ball to the corner so that we can attack on reversals. We didn’t do a very good job of that early.”
Uncharacteristic shooting woes plagued the Hawks. Seniors Drew Huse and Callahan O’Reilly combined to miss 23 of 27. Backup guard Kyler Ash, though, gave Bozeman a chance to keep their record unblemished. The senior opened the fourth with an impressive spin move to get open after a baseline drive, banked home a shot and cut the deficit to two. He hit two 3s in the next two minutes to give the Hawks a 52-49 lead with 4:45 remaining.
“I was really confident in my shot today, but defensively we just didn’t get stops down the stretch and that’s what killed us in the end,” said Ash, who paced the hosts with 20. “In the first half we didn’t play great, but in the second half we competed really well.”
Bozeman shot just 27 percent (17 of 62) to Glacier’s 42 (23 of 55) and was out-rebounded 48-43. Lance McCutcheon logged 15 points, Huse 11 and O’Reilly 10.
“We can play with anybody, but can we learn to win games like this where we don’t shoot the ball very well?” Holmquist asked. “We’ve got 15 more games. It’s going to happen at some point. I thought we battled back even though we didn’t do what we wanted to do.
“Tonight, when we had to get a stop. They scored too many times. We’re going to hang our hat from here on out that we have to get better defensively.”