Bears, Hawks, T-Birds all dangerous

When it comes to divisional basketball tournaments in Montana, there may be none better than the Northern C. This week, the teams of that conference will once again get a chance to show why.

While things are equally strong on the girls side, the boys version of the tournament has been as tough as they come. In each of the past three seasons, the winner of the Northern C has also gone on to win the Class C state title.

Three teams from the District 9C will make the trip to Great Falls this week to compete in the tournament, which will once again be held at the Four Seasons Arena. The action will start at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday morning when the Hays-Lodge Pole Thunderbirds, the third-place team in the 9C, take on Sunburst, the champs of the 10C.

“The Northern C is always tough,” Box Elder head coach Jeremy MacDonald said. “You have to play your best or you can get beat by anybody.”

MacDonald’s Bears know that as well as anyone. Last season, Box Elder entered the tournament as the defending state champions and with just one loss. But, they had no answer for a hot-shooting Highwood team that knocked them off in the first round. The Bears finished third but were unable to challenge.

One year later, the Bears again have just one loss (20-1) and are again coming off a 9C tournament championship — their fourth consecutive — but this team is hungry and what it wants is a trip back to state, badly.

“I think about it every single day,” Box Elder point guard Brandon The Boy said of the loss to Highwood. “That has stuck with us for a long time, so we are hungry. We are really hungry.”

“This team is very motivated,” MacDonald said. “They feel like they have some unfinished business.”

Box Elder looked it in the 9C. After blasting Big Sandy and Chinook by more than 60 points on average, the Bears beat Chester/J-I in the championship game last Saturday in Havre by 17 points. And even though the game was closer than the final score made it look, there is no doubt that the Bears are playing as well as anyone in Class C basketball right now.

Led by The Boy, who scored 31 points in Box Elder’s win over C/J-I, the Bears have a fearsome foursome that also includes All-Stater Jerrod Four Colors as well as Pernell Morsette and Jake Jones.

“He’s not 100 percent, but he’s playing better and once he gets out on the court, that adrenaline really kicks in,” MacDonald said of Jones. “But he’s playing as well right now as he has all season for us. Pernell has also stepped up big for us offensively. We go nine deep and I think all of those guys have scored in double figures. So that’s a nice luxury. Most teams don’t have the depth that we have, so we really try to wear people down over the course of 32 minutes.”

All four players are capable of taking over a game and three of them, The Boy, Four Colors and Jones have been with the team for all four district championships. Each player has played in the state tournament and been on a state championship team, which is experience that should serve the Bears well in their first-round matchup against either Heart Butte, the No.3 from the 10C or Tri-Cities the No.3 from the 8C at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

If the Bears win, they will play the winner of Denton-Geyser-Stanford, the second seed from the 8C and Power, the second seed from the 10C in the semifinals at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The championship game is Friday at 8:30 p.m.

Box Elder may be favored by many to get to the championship game, but the other favorite coming into the tournament is Belt, the defending state champion. The Huskies also won the Northern C last season and the 8C last weekend.

Belt did lose some key players from last season’s state championship team, but with Koltin Haugrose, who earned All-State honors last season and Matt Metrione, who was All-Conference, back, the Huskies have more than enough talent to take the Northern C again.

Yet, C/J-I (17-4) doesn’t fear the Huskies, especially when the Hawks have four big-time players of their own. Of course, the Hawks’ go-to-guy is All-State forward Justin May, but fellow Senior Troy Harmon has taken his game to another level and hit five 3-pointers the 9C chipper against Box Elder. Senior point guard Brandon Richter is also capable of going off for a big night and has been one of the most steady guards in the Northern C all season long. In addition to those three, there is Cory Richter, a deadly shooter from beyond the arc, who can score in a number of different ways. The Hawks and Huskies will meet Wednesday at 11 a.m. in the quarterfinals.

“After we lost, Brandon (The Boy) came over and said ‘See you Friday’,” C/J-I head coach Spencer Satori said. “And we are going to try our best to make that happen. Belt is a great team and we are going to have to play our best to beat them.”

HLP, which will play before both Box Elder and C/J-I, will take on Sunburst, the champion of the 10C in a rematch of last year’s quarterfinals when the T-Birds ousted the Refiners. The T-Birds (14-8) may be the third-place team from the 9C, but they are as hot as anyone in the tournament and with the trio of Frank Runs Above, Tyson Shambo and Jace Shambo, they are capable of giving just about any team some trouble.

HLP may have plenty of experience returning from last year’s team, but the Refiners do as well as Logan Simmes, an All-Conference player and Jackson Nagy are both back from last year’s squad.

“There is going to be some tough competition,” HLP head coach Derrick Shambo said. “But our boys know what it’s like to play in these big games and as long as we keep playing together and keep playing as a team, we will have a good chance.”

The four quarterfinal winners will play at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the Northern C semifinals. The consolation game will be at 7 p.m. Saturday, with the championship game to follow at 8:30 p.m. If a challenge game is needed it will be held on Saturday at 5 p.m. The top two teams from this weekend’s action in Great Falls advance to next weekend’s state tournament, which is also in the Four Seasons Arena.