Bravettes Pivot to Winning Record

On Feb. 3, Flathead Bravettes basketball coach Sam Tudor was putting his players through a pre-game practice. The second-year coach watched the team run through shooting and defensive drills with a practiced eye — Tudor’s coached his fair share of championship-caliber teams and looks to be bringing yet another to those heights. 

At the end of the practice, Tudor gathered the team for some final words before the upcoming games. 

“Let’s have a big weekend. No matter what the teams throw at us, you keep at it,” Tudor said. “You go earn that greatness and then you keep earning it, because that’s what we are, a great team.”

The Bravettes (11-2) did indeed keep at it, splitting their weekend on the court. On Friday, Feb. 4, Flathead hosted Butte (6-6) and survived a low-scoring game against the Bulldogs, eking out a 36-32 win on some late three-pointers from seniors Clare Converse and Avery Chouinard. 

A day later, they hosted Missoula’s Sentinel High (6-7), and in a tight game lost 53-50 following a hard late charge by the Spartans that saw six unanswered points in the final minutes. It was just the second loss for the Bravettes this season. 

The Bravettes haven’t made it to the state tournament since 2013, and Tudor is the fourth head coach for the program since then. When Tudor returned to coaching last year after taking the 2020 season off, he inherited a young but talented team with something to prove.

However, it took some time for the team to reach its full potential. 

In Tudor’s first season, the Bravettes went 2-13, almost matching his five-year loss total from his tenure at Bigfork. Tudor attributes some of those first-year growing pains to the coaching transition, which was exacerbated by a pandemic that limited pre-season training. 

“I didn’t know any of these girls when I took the job, I didn’t know what I was getting into,” Tudor said. “But I was dealt a very good hand and now we’re displaying it.”

Now, with just over a year of growth and understanding between the players and their coach, Flathead is 11-2 after starting the winter with a 10-game winning streak, including a decisive 52-23 crosstown victory over rival Glacier. 

“They make me look like a genius every night,” Tudor said. “They just feed off of each other and it’s fun to watch that.”

The Bravettes are not short of talent or leadership to feed off. There’s the lone senior, captain Clare Converse who recently signed to play for Carroll College; junior Maddy Moy, the team’s leading scorer who’s been averaging 11 points a game; and sophomore Kennedy Moore, who leads the state in rebounds. 

Junior Akilah Kubi has been raking in the rebounds and steals, and consistently sets up her teammates for success. 

“The biggest shift from last season is our confidence,” Kubi said. “We have so much chemistry now, we know where everyone is at and our confidence is just so high right now.”

Kubi adds that most of the girls have been playing together since grade school, so the friendship factor on the court is huge as well. 

“When you’re playing with your friends, not just your teammates, it makes a huge difference and we have so much fun on the court,” Kubi said. “Plus winning is awesome.”

Flathead’s biggest test of the season came against top-ranked conference foe Hellgate, where their first loss was a big one: 58-22. 

“It was a humbling experience for sure, but we understand that they’re an elite team,” Tudor said. “There’s no gimmies in Western AA right now, anyone can beat anyone but I think this team has the potential to also be at that elite level.”

Tudor said that the team is continuing to evolve through the season, with a lot of recent practices focused on matching a fiery offense with a stalwart defense and on closing games through to the final buzzer. 

“The last years of school have been so difficult with a pandemic going on, but for me, and the team, basketball has been the normal thing we do,” Tudor said. “So when we go out there to practice or play, we’re going to have fun, that’s ultimately what we want to accomplish. And the thing is, if this team is having fun, they’re going to win games.”