Bearing down on a repeat

It’s no secret the Box Elder Bears like to play fast. The No. 1 team in all of Class C basketball loves to light up the scoreboard, and loves to play just as frenzied on the defensive end.

And it really wasn’t a secret that the underdog North Star Knights would try and slow things down the best they could in their semifinal matchup with the Bears Thursday afternoon. And while the strategy appeared to work for a little while, it wasn’t nearly enough for the Knights to have a fighting chance against the defending 9C champions. The Bears (19-0) overcame a slow start offensively and wound up beating the Knights 76-39 Thursday at the HHS gymnasium. The win pushed the Bears into Saturday night’s championship game where they’ll face the Chinook Sugarbeeters.

“It’s tournament basketball,” Box Elder head coach Jeremy MacDonald said. “It really doesn’t matter if you win by one or by 50, the goal is to get to the next level. Our first goal was to win today, and we did that, so we’re happy.”

North Star’s goal was to make winning as difficult as possible on the Bears, and for a time, the Knights did just that. The Knights came out in a four-corner offense and worked diligently to limit Box Elder’s chance at offensive possessions, and after the Bears scored the first four points of the game, it worked. But more effective was North Star’s zone defense, as Box Elder struggled to make outside shots early on. Randall Gardipee did hit a 3-pointer in the first quarter, but overall, the Bears went just 2-of-7 from beyond the arc in the first half, and only led 14-10 at the end of the first quarter.

Buckets by Cooper Spicher and Sam Ulmen kept North Star close midway through the second quarter as well, but Box Elder’s defense was forcing the Knights to turn the ball over at an alarming rate, and steals, helped the Bears gain a cushion. Brandon The Boy and Lonnie Plain Bull each scored off steals and Plain Bull added a three as the Bears went on a 7-0 run and eventually led 29-18 at intermission.

“We’ve been expecting that,” MacDonald said of North Star’s patient offense. “We talk all the time about what would we do if we were playing us, and slowing the game down is effective. It’s a good strategy, and I thought North Star played really well in that first half. Cody (Donoven) is a good coach and he had them well-prepared.

“But I also felt like we still did a great job of pressuring them” he continued. “We forced 22 turnovers in the first half. What we didn’t do was make enough shots. We missed a lot of good looks.”

The Bears’ pressure did get to the Knights, who committed another 20 turnovers in the second half. And on the other end, Box Elder didn’t miss nearly as many shots. The Bears went on a 13-0 run early in the third quarter, sparked by layups from Plain Bull and threes from Clayton Morsette, while North Star really began to struggle offensively. By the end of the third quarter, Box Elder led 51-25, and the Bears continued to speed the game up in the final eight minutes, pulling away for good.

North Star (6-14) played valiantly, but the turnovers really hampered what the Knights were trying to do offensively, and though they shot 50 percent from the field, they didn’t get enough possessions to have a chance to stay with the high-scoring Bears. Quinn Spinler wound up with 13 points for the Knights, who will face Big Sandy today at 2:30 p.m., while Cooper Spicher added 11 and Thatcher Smith scored six points and grabbed five rebounds.

Plain Bull paced the Bears with 20 points, including two of Box Elder’s five triples. Morsette hit three bombs in the contest and scored 13 points, while Gardipee, Brandon The Boy and Thomas Parisian chipped in with eight each. In all, 10 Bears scored, and Box Elder got an astounding 47 points off North Star turnovers.

“The stalling in the first half was a pretty good strategy because it limited our possessions,” The Boy said. “But our defense was really good. We kept up the pressure and we got some steals and layups. That was big for us.”

Now the Bears are one step closer to completing the 9C sweep. Already regular season champions, the Bears will face the Sugarbeeters in Saturday night’s championship game. And that’s the goal for the Bears, to win another 9C trophy and move on to the Northern C next week in Great Falls.

“Coach talks about our goals all the time,” The Boy noted. “And winning this tournament is one of the ones we’re focused on. We can’t even think about divisionals yet. Chinook is a tough team and we have to worry about taking care of business against them. We take it one game at a time.”

“Our first goal was to get to Saturday night,” MacDonald added. “We accomplished that today. North Star played a good game, but now we can look to our next goal and that’s to win this tournament. That’s what we’re focused on now.”

Saturday night’s championship game between Box Elder and Chinook will tip off at 7:30 p.m. at the HHS gymnasium. The winner automatically moves on to the Northern C next Thursday in Great Falls.

Box Elder 76, North Star 30

Box Elder 14 15 22 25 – 76

North Star 10 8 7 14 – 39

Box Elder – Brandon The Boy 3-8 2-2 8, Clayton Morsette 5-7 0-0 13, Tristan Bernard 0-1 1-2 1, Randall Gardipee 3-11 2-2 8, Jake Jones 3-5 0-1 6, Ryan Gardipee 1-3 0-0 2, Jerrod Four Colors 2-5 0-0 4, Quinn Baker 1-1 1-2 3, Thomas Parisian 2-5 4-6 8, Lonnie Plain Bull 9-13 0-0 20, Slayte Duran 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 39-61 11-15 76.

North Star – Cooper Spicher 3-3 5-7 11, Quinn Spinler 5-6 2-3 13, Gavin Spinler 0-2 0-0 0, Payton Peterson 2-5 0-0 4, Sam Ulmen 2-3 0-0 4, Thatcher Smith 3-4 0-2 6. Totals: 15-30 8-14 39.

3-pointers: Box Elder 5-19 (Morsette 3, Plain Bull 2), North Star 1-5 (Q. Spinler 1); Rebounds: Box Elder 22 (Parisian 5), North Star 29 (Smith 5); Fouls: Box Elder 16, North Star 13; Fouled out: None.