Bears cruise into Northern C semifinals

GREAT FALLS — One year ago, at the Northern C Divisional tournament, the Box Elder boys basketball team had its heart broken. This time around, it was the Bears that did the heart-breaking.

For one quarter, the Tri-City Titans hung around with the Bears and for a short time, probably even had hope of pulling a gigantic upset. But, it wasn’t long before the Bears put together a few of their patented runs and crushed the Titans 87-47 Wednesday inside the Four Seasons Arena at Great Falls.

After trailing by three points on a couple of occasions in the first quarter, the Bears rallied to build a 23-20 lead at the end of the opening stanza. And at that point, thanks to the stellar play of point guard Brandon The Boy and a dominant defense that forced 28 turnovers, Box Elder established its dominance.

“They came out and they were ready to go,” Box Elder head coach Jeremy MacDonald said. “But our bench really came up big for us. We kept the defensive pressure up and maintaining that defensive pressure is a big key for us.”

With the Bears leading 31-26 midway through the second quarter, The Boy scored twice and then used a no-look pass to find Shane Ketchum for a layup to push the lead to 10, 36-36. Then, after another deuce by The Boy, Tristan Bernard drilled a 3-pointer and suddenly, a single-digit lead ballooned into 15 at 41-26. And when the second quarter ended, the Bears had scored 29 points and owned a commanding 52-28 lead.

In the third quarter, The Boy stole the show. He opened the half by hitting from deep, then from two, before connecting on another trey to push the Bears advantage to 40. For the game, The Boy’s final numbers were eye-popping; he finished with 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting, while also contributing seven assists and five steals. He also had just one turnover.

“Brandon is playing as well as he ever has right now,” MacDonald said. “He has just really taken his game to another level. When you have someone like that who can be a leader on the floor and who can take control of things the way he can, it’s a big advantage.”

While The Boy was outstanding, the Bears had a number of others who put together impressive outings such as Shane Ketchum, who scored 17. Pernell Morsette added 14 and Jerrod Four Colors had 12. As a team, the Bears shot 55 percent from the field and 62 percent from inside the arc.

After knocking off the Titans Wednesday, the Bears will be back in action in the Northern C semifinals today in Great Falls. Their opponents will be Denton-Geyser-Stanford, which beat Power in the quarterfinals to earn a rematch against the Bears, who knocked off DGS twice during the regular season.

“We know that it’s going to be a physical game against DGS,” MacDonald said. “But, we know how to play that kind of game and as long as we can match their physicality, we should have a good chance.”

Box Elder 87, Tri-City 47

Tri-City 29 8 9 10 - 47

Box Elder 23 299 26 9 - 87

Tri-City - Hayden Heiling 4, Chance McCallister 14, CJ Stevenson 15, Jace Aune 8, Tucker Walter 2, Jacob McAllister 4. Totals: 20-47 4-13 47.

Box Elder - Jerrod Four Colors 12, Pernell Morsette 14, Brandon The Boy 18, Bodis Duran 4, Tristan Bernard 10, Jake Jones 1, Elias Robertson 2, Trey Henderson 7, Lane Caplette 2, Shane Ketchum 17. Totals: 37-67 9-13 87.

Fouls: Tri-City 10, Box Elder 10. Fouled out - none. 3-Pointers: The Boy 2, Bernard, Henderson, Aune.

Belt 76, Chester-Joplin-Inverness 54

The Chester-Joplin-Inverness Hawks were hoping that they could challenge the Belt Huskies, the defending Class C state champions, but on the first day of the boys Northern C divisional basketball tournament, the Huskies proved to be out of their league.

Thanks to a hot-shooting first half in which Belt scored 30 points in the first quarter and knocked down seven 3-pointers. the Huskies showed why they are a tournament favorite with an impressive 76-54 win over CJI Wednesday at the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls.

“I am not really sure what happened. We just had a hard time finding their shooters,” CJI head coach Spencer Satori said. “We game planned for Haugrose and those guys, it just seemed like the bucket was about 10-feet wide for them.”

Haugrose, the Huskies only returning All-State player, proved to be the best player on the floor early and made four first-half treys, which helped Belt build a such a commanding lead. For the game, he finished with 20 points after hitting on 7-of-12 shots from the field. The Huskies had four others that managed to score in double figures, while the Hawks had three.

The lone bright spot in the loss for the Hawks was some improved play in the second half, which Satori could be something to build off with a long road ahead in the consolation bracket.

“I think that will be something positive for us,” Satori said. “Like I tell the boys, the hoop is 10-feet tall just like it is in Chester. We just have to come out and take it one game at a time. We can’t get caught looking ahead or anything like that. Our season is going to be on the line and we need to play with some urgency.” The leading scorer in the game for the Hawks was Troy Harmon, who finished with 18 points and was 3-of-4 from downtown in the loss. Cory Richter also knocked down a couple treys on his way to 13 points, while Justin May added 12. The Hawks are now 17-5 on the season will play the winner of Hays-Lodge Pole and Heart Butte tonight at 7.

Belt 76, Chester-Joplin-Inverness 54

Belt 30 15 18 13 - 76

CJI 12 13 13 16 - 54

Belt - Keagan Stroop 5, Harry Green 11, Koltin Haugrose 20, Jess Bodner 10, Jaren Maki 10, Matt Matrione 11, Dusty Potter 2, Trey Heitzman 2. Totals: 27-52.

CJI - Cory Richter 13, Brandon Richter 4, Javin Miles 7, Troy Harmon 18, Justin May 10, Bruce Tempel 2. Totals:

Fouls: CJI 18, Belt 8. Fouled out - none. 3-pointers: Haugrose 4, Green 3, Harmon 3, May 2, Richter 2, Bodner 2, Maki 2, Stroop, Miles.

Sunburst 79, Hays-Lodge Pole 70

After taking third in the District 9C tournament, the Hays-Lodge Pole Thunderbirds were hoping to knock off Sunburst for the second year-in-a-row, but this time around, the Refiners had other ideas.

Sunburst led much of the way in the game and despite a late rally by HLP, they ended up advancing to the Northern C semifinals with a 79-70 win Wednesday in Great Falls. Jace Shambo led the way with 20 points and Tyson Shambo added 18. Frank Runs Above also contributed with 18 points for HLP.

The T-Birds (14-8) are still alive in the tournament and will take on Heart Butte in loser-out action today at 11. If they win, the T-Birds will take on CJI at 7.

HLP 13 20 16 21 - 70

Sunburst 22 19 23 15 - 79

HLP - Jace Shambo 20, Elijah Blackcrow 6, Tyson Shambo 18, Brian Wing 2, Frank Runs Above 15, Thane Hegelson 9. Totals: 30-81 4-13 70.

Sunburst - Logan Simmes 6, Timothe JArvis 10, Jackson Nagy 17, Treyton Pickering 20, Paul Ehlers 20, Chance Morgan 4, Ulan Omdahl 2. Totals: 28-53 17-22 79.

Fouls: HLP 20, Sunburst 13. Fouled out - none. 3-Pointers: Nagy 4, Tyson Shambo 3, Ehlers 2 Blackcrow 2, Hegelson.