MISSOULA — The Missoula Sentinel boys basketball team swarmed the Helena High Bengals on defense Tuesday night to pick up its third win in a row with a 59-34 victory.
The Spartans came in with two straight wins to start the season while the Bengals were looking for their first win after starting 0-2.
In the first half, Helena hung around with two key 3-pointers from Kade Schlepp and Evan Barber but struggled to get the offense going with eight points in the first quarter and 10 in the second.
While Sentinel had some struggles on the offensive end, its defense kept its lead consistent, holding Helena to just 18 first-half points.
In the second half, Sentinel's senior stars, Tony Frohlich-Fair and Alex Germer, came alive to dominate the rest of the time. Frohlich-Fair finished with 14 points and Germer finished with a game-high 17 with a lot of those points coming from the free-throw line or second-chance points.
"I could always have a good game if my shot falls or if it doesn’t," said Germer. "I just keep working hard, getting the rebound, playing defense, sharing the ball. But yeah, when my shot's falling it’s even better. I just crash the boards and do all the little stuff."
Kaden Sheridan also gave the Spartans some energy as he finished with five points and forced a few turnovers that led to fastbreak points.
"We played really hard (Tuesday). We got a lot of defensive stops. If we push the ball a lot, share the ball, it was just a perfect game all around," said Germer. "We followed our game plan and just came out with a victory."
For the Bengals, they struggled again in the second half with 16 points. They were led by Barber, who had a team-high nine points.
With the win, the Spartans move to a perfect 3-0 on the season but know they have a lot of work.
"Finally starting to get our legs a little bit," said Spartans head coach Jason Maki. "We took a few weeks off and I felt we were a little sluggish at times in our previous games, but I think we’re starting to get after it a little bit. It was fun to get up and down the court, anytime we get to play basketball is great and we’re very grateful for that. I just think when we get out in the open floor and we get to have a little bit of fun the kids feed on that intensity so they play better defense and it kind of spirals hopefully."
