Rocky Boy, Harlem take a shot at Northern B

It hasn’t happened often, but both the Rocky Boy Morning Stars and the Harlem Wildcats made it happen this season. Both girls basketball teams will get to play in the Northern B Divisional tournament.

The Northern B, which starts today and runs through Saturday in Conrad, is easily the most difficult divisional tournament in Class B, and that’s simply because the top two programs in Class B, the Fairfield Eagles and Malta M-Ettes both reside in the Northern B.

And both the Eagles and M-Ettes come into the 2014 Northern B undefeated, and ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the state, respectively. That means, the rest of the field will be decided underdogs this weekend, and that includes the Morning Stars and Wildcats.

Still, just making it this far is a grand accomplishment for both programs.

Rocky Boy is playing in just its second divisional tournament since moving up to Class B five years ago. The Morning Stars finished fifth in the 1B regular season, but scored a huge win in the 1B tournament two weeks ago and wound up finishing fourth, which advanced them to this week’s divisional round.

The Morning Stars (8-13) have the unenviable task of facing 2B champion Malta (20-0) in the first round this afternoon. Rocky Boy, led by sensational scorer Chanal Standing Rock, as well as Jude The Boy, does know Malta well and will be prepared for today’s game. The Morning Stars played the M-Ettes twice during the regular season, both losses, but at the very least, they’ll know what to expect in today’s game. Rocky Boy also gets solid contributions from Jai-Lynn Day Child and Kylee Raining Bird.

On the other side of the bracket is Harlem (7-13), and the Wildcats have an even bigger battle ahead of them than the Morning Stars do. Tonight, Harlem faces three-time defending Class B champion Fairfield in the opening round of the Northern B, and the Eagles bring a 98-game winning streak — a Montana high school record — into the contest.

But like Rocky Boy, just getting to Conrad is a major step for the Wildcats, who finished fourth at the 2B tournament two weeks ago. This is only Harlem’s third appearance in the Northern B in the last 12 years, so it will be a great experience for the Wildcats. Harlem, is led by Teche Ereaux, Monique Doney, Coco Moore and Jaycee Werk, all who can reach double figures. And while the Wildcats are huge underdogs tonight against Fairfield, they certainly are good enough to win a game or two this weekend.

The winner of the Rocky Boy/Malta game will face the winner of the Glasgow (7-13) and Choteau (14-6) first-round game which starts at 2:30 p.m. The losers from the first two games will play in a loser-out game Friday afternoon. The winner of the Fairfield/Harlem bout will meet the winner of tonight’s final first round game between Conrad (12-10) and Wolf Point (11-9) while the loser’s of the two night games tonight will meet in the other loser-out game Friday afternoon.

The Northern B will run through Saturday’s consolation game at 6:30 p.m. and the championship game at 8 p.m. The top two teams from this weekend’s tournament in Conrad will advance to the Class B state tournament March 13-15 in Bozeman.