HELENA -- It was loud, rowdy, and less than pretty at some points, but a win is a win in Class AA Basketball, and the Helena Capital Bruins got theirs in a gritty one over Helena High on Jan. 24.
"It's a really good feeling for us. We're not the biggest team, not the most appealing, but we'll go out there and get it done," said Helena Capital's Malachi Syvrud.
To put things in perspective of what Friday's game was like, both teams combined for 33 turnovers and turned them into a total of 30 points, just over 30 percent of the game's grand total.
"We've won some up and down games, we've won some real pretty games, that was a grinder. Not as pretty, a little bit ugly." said Bruins head coach Guy Almquist. "That was the first time we found a way to win a game like that."
Through the first three quarters of the game, Capital's first quarter lead of four points stood tall, but with a little under five minutes left to play Helena High tied it up on a Hayden Ferguson lay-up at 38-38.
From there, the Bengals struggles compounded. In the second half, the Bengals missed all eight attempts from beyond the arc, and only sunk 7 of 22 total shots. Capital continued to barrage the Bengals with attack from both inside the key and from 3-point range and outscored the Bengals 20-11 in the final quarter of the game en route to victory.
"I think we got a little tired at the end, had more mental breakdowns. Capital took advantage of some big offensive guards, and they finished better than we did," said Helena High head coach Brandon Day.
Brayden Koch, Bridger Grovom, Shane Haller and Syvrud all reached the double-digit point mark on the night for the Bruins, and Almquist was not only happy that his squad cobbled together a win but that Syvrud bounced back in a major way on a night where the Bruins needed it.
"We knew it was coming. We know how good player Malachi is. We feel like we've got six starters and he just had that injury early on kind of took off his rhythm," said Almquist. "It's taking a while to get back, but we knew this was going to come and we're real happy it came tonight."
Dexter Tedesco finished the game for the Bengals with 11 points.
