Bear Tracks: Box Elder wins 9C challenge

It's been a while since the Box Elder boys basketball team has stepped on the Four Seasons Arena floor at the Northern C Divisional in Great Falls.

But the wait is over.

Box Elder capped off a thrilling weekend at the 9C boys basketball tournament with an even more exciting 64-57 win over the Big Sandy Pioneers in a 9C challenge game Monday night at the Havre High gymnasium.

The in over the Pioneers, who had finished second or better at the 9C tourney in each of the last five seasons, catapulted the Bears into the divisional tournament, where they'll play Thursday afternoon in Great Falls. It was also part of an exciting and tremendous run this weekend by Box Elder, which beat Hays-Lodge Pole twice, Turner once, as well as losing to Chinook, before taking out the Pioneers on Monday night.

"We came in here this week with a chip on our shoulder, because nobody respected our team," Box Elder's Jesse Ramos, who poured in a game-high 22 points on Monday night said. "But we also knew we had to earn respect. And I think we did that this weekend. We played really good basketball, and it feels really good to finish the way we did."

And finish the Bears did.

In a game that was looking like it would go down to the wire Monday night, the Bears made the final push, going on a 10-0 run in the final 3:50 to pull away from a Big Sandy team which played valiantly throughout the night. The run started after Big Sandy's Jesse Bailey had tied the game at 52-52 and it ended, fittingly with Ramos making a pair of free throws just before time expired on this year's 9C extravaganza.

"I think a big key tonight was, we were going to play good defense," Box Elder head coach Zane Rosette said. "We said that we would expend all our energy playing defense, and let our offense come from that. And it worked for us. The kids played extremely hard on the defensive end, and we needed to because Big sandy is a physical, bigger team, and we knew they were going to pound it inot their big guys on us. So we had to match that, and we did. And it paid off for us at the end of the game because we played really good defense down the stretch."

And Big Sandy did go inside, but so did the Bears. While Ramos got the game off to a rousing start with a 3-pointer, it was his passing to Box Elder's big men, Jacob Parker and Warren Parisian, which wowed the crowd Monday night. Parker and Lance Young got after the Pioneers on the inside early on, and Box Elder led 15-12 at the end of the first quarter.

But as they would do all night, the Pioneers never let the Bears slip away. Big Sandy junior Justin Stevens had a huge second quarter, which eventually led to a 30-30 deadlock at halftime.

The two teams then traded big shots in a wild and well-played third quarter. Zac Leader gave the Pioneers a brief lead on a 3-pointer midway through the period, but the Bears regained control on back-to-back buckets by Ramos to close the quarter, as Box Elder led 48-46.

And the fourth quarter was just as wild. The Pioneers had the lead two different times, and there were four ties. But when Parker scored a basket at the 3:51 mark to put the Bears ahead 55-52, they never looked back.

"Again, I thought our defense was a big key," Rosette said. "We really got after them and forced them to hurry some shots. Offensively, we were pretty patient down the stretch and we took care of the ball. It was a great game, and we'll take the win and hopefully build on it."

Ramos led the way for the Bears, but Parker finished with a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds, along with four blocked shots. In five tournament games, Parker had an astounding 19 blocked shots. Young added 11 points off the bench for the Bears, while Stevens paced Big Sandy with 16 points and six rebounds. Leader finished with 12 points in the final game of the Pioneers' season.

And while the 9C tournament ended in disappointment for Big Sandy, the upstart Bears are back in the Northern C for the first time in nearly a decade. Box Elder will go into Great Falls as underdogs, especially against Winifred-Roy, which the Bears play at 4 p.m. on Thursday afternoon.

But that's ok with the Bears, and it's ok with Rosette, who was extremely proud of what a great tournament his team together this weekend.

"In my five years of coaching at Box Elder, I've never been more proud of any group," he said. "Not just because we won tonight, but because of the effort and the work ethic they've put forth this season. We started the year with 19 kids and they are all still here. None of them took the easy way out. They all put in the work, we've developed great leadership from our first seven guys and things have really come together. I'm extremely proud of them.

"We've worked all season for this moment," Ramos added. "Every player on this team has worked very hard to be better basketball players and to make our team better. And it's paid off now. We felt like this was our time, our year to be better, and we're proving it now. And it feels good."