Dreams do come true.
After being counted out by nearly everyone in the 1997 season, the Flathead Braves basketball team sent a shock wave through the state by upsetting the Sentinel Spartans 64-52 on Feb. 22. The win avenged a loss to Sentinel earlier in the year and earned the Braves a trip to the state playoffs.
"We played real good defense," said Braves head coach Joe Antonietti. "We rebounded much better than we did against them earlier in the year.."
With the win, and after beating Butte on Feb. 17, the Braves reached the playoffs for the first time since 1993.
After trailing 30-26 at the end of the first half, Flathead took over, outscoring the Spartans 38-22 in the second half. The Braves were lead by junior Toby Winters, who scored a career-high 21 points - 17 in the second half. Overall, Winters went 9-9 from the field and 3-3 from three-point range.
"That's probably one of the best games I've ever had in my life," said Winters. "9-9 doesn't happen very often. It was good while it happened. We're going to win at state now."
The Braves were also aided by seniors Chad Wassink and Eric Rich. Rich contributed 16 points and Wassink threw in 11. In contrast, none of the Spartans scored more than 13 points.
"The main key was that we played very good defense," said junior Ryan Wardinsky. "They also had foul trouble the whole game. That took a lot of their weapons away. We also played really good defense and executed well on offense."
With over 80 Flathead fans attending, the Spartans had little or no home court advantage.
"There were so many people there. It was great," said Rich. "I don't think there was a home court advantage because of all the support we had from the town of Kalispell. I've never seen anything like that. With their help, we won two playoff games on the road, which has never been done by a AA team."
In the last two weeks, the Braves have turned around what once looked to be a disastrous season. On Jan. 28, the Braves were humiliated by the Columbia Falls Wildkats, 79-46. Since then, Flathead has won four out of five games.
"After the Columbia Falls game, we were about as low as we could get," said Antonietti. "I told the team it was up to them, that they had to make the decision what they were going to do for the rest of the year. They showed a lot of resilience and tried to get better. It really worked out for them."
The Braves played Billings Skyview, which was ranked second in the east, Thursday after press time. Flathead went into the game ranked third in the west, and ended the regular season at 7-15. Still, the Braves have defied the odds for nearly a month, and many wonder, could it happen again?
"Momentum is very important right now," said Antonietti. "We've got two wins under our belt now. Skyview has been sitting for two weeks without a game. The pressure's all on Billings Skyview. We need to go in there and just play relaxed."