Southern B divisional basketball tournament a giant success. The tournament was held in Billings at Rim Rock Auto Arena at the Metra and records were set for attendance for the tournament. Near capacity crowds filled the large building.
The 5B teams that qualified from the district tournament two weeks ago in Belgrade were Three Forks and Sweetgrass County on the girls’ side, Broadwater and Whitehall for the boys.
GIRLS’ DIVISIONAL ACTION In girls’ first-round action Sweetgrass defeated Roundup 48-45 and Three Forks defeated Lame Deer 80-57. Other first-round games saw St Labre over Shepherd 62-49 and Colstrip over Red Lodge 55-45. In loser out on Friday, Lame Deer edged Shepherd 74-70 and Red Lodge defeated Roundup 61-35. Three Forks rolled over St. Labre 74-30 and Colstrip beat Big Timber 53- 44 in the semifinal games to advance to the championship game on Saturday night.
Saturday morning loser out games saw Lame Deer over Sweetgrass 69-59 and Red Lodge over St. Labre 66-56. Saturday night Red Lodge beat Lame Deer 63-52 and in doing so qualified for State. Three Forks and the undefeated Colstrip girls had a very exciting game for the title. Three Forks took a 12-8 lead at the end of one and was up 21-12 with 5:02 left in the second before free throws took over.
In the next five minutes there were 22 straight free throw attempts; Three Forks hit 9 of 10 and Colstrip hit 10 of 12 giving the Wolves a 30-22 lead with 6 seconds left in the half. Colstrip hit a three as time expired to make it 30-25. For the first half the Wolves hit 15 of 17 free throws and Colstrip hit 11 of 16. The five point lead by the Wolves evaporated in the third quarter, which ended with a 42 all tie.
The Wolves started the fourth with a three by Shainey Mack and a two by Talyn Pitcher to go up 47-42, but Colstrip scored the next eight points to take a 50-47 lead with 3:48 left in the game. Mack answered with two straight three pointers to put the Wolves back on top, 53-50, and Three Forks led 54-52 with 1:47 left. Those final seconds seemed like an eternity. Colstrip held a 56-54 lead with 43 seconds left, and the Wolves scrambled to catch up. With eight seconds remaining, the Wolves tied the game and it looked as if it would go into overtime.
The Fillies, straining to retain their undefeated season, took the ball down the floor and scored with two ticks on the clock to take the win and the title. It was a downer for the Wolves, who will surely be look- ing for a chance to snap that 23-0 Fillies streak at State. The bracket for the B girls’ State in Billings this weekend has Malta versus Three Forks at noon, Ronan against Red Lodge at 1:30, Colstrip taking on Wolf Point at 6:30 and Fairfield facing Florence at 8:00 p.m.
DIVISIONAL BOYS’ GAMES On the boys’ side, in round one Joliet edged Colstrip 50- 46, Lodge Grass knocked down Broadwater 63-40, Lame Deer overwhelmed Shepherd 78-55 and Roundup defeated Whitehall 55-46. That was not the result most in 5B thought would happen, but it is high school basketball and hard to predict. That sent both 5B representatives into loser out games Fri- day. Broadwater recovered to beat Colstrip 56-46 and Whitehall did the same, taking Shepherd 62-50. In semifinal action Lodge Grass edged Joliet by a single point, 62- 61, and Lame Deer beat Roundup 75-69. Saturday morning loser out games saw Roundup edge Broadwater 50-49 in over- time to eliminate the Bulldogs.
Whitehall stayed alive as the sole 5B representative, though, overcoming Joliet 51-46 in overtime. That put Whitehall and Round- up against each other for the second time, with the winner headed to State and the loser ending the season. Whitehall came out with a defense that we are used to seeing in 5B and a determination that they were not going to get caught flat-footed again. The Trojans went up 10-4 in the first quarter and increased the lead to 24-13 at the half. They kept up the pace in the third and held a 15 point lead, 38-23, heading into the fourth.
In the first 5:36 of the fourth the Trojans put it away, at one point leading by 20, 49-29. They coasted to a 52-34 win that gave them third place and advanced them to the State tournament this week in Billings. Max Feight led the Trojans with 16 points, Wyatt Alexander added 9, Andrew Simon 8, and Braden Larsen 7. The bracket for the boys’ State in Billings this Thursday has Shelby taking on Lodge Grass at 9:00 a.m., Anaconda trying their hands against Whitehall at 10:30, Lame Deer challenging Malta at 3:30, and Cut Bank facing Loyola at 5:00 p.m.
I think Whitehall has a great shot of advancing to the title game on Saturday night. Closer to home the AA boys’ and girls’ State is at Great Falls, Class A boys are at the Butte Civic Center, and Class C boys are at Bozeman at MSU.
SPRING SPORTS NEARING Practice for track and field, tennis and golf barely waits for basketball season to close. The practices start Monday, March 13.
