State C Basketball: Bears now one win away

The Box Elder Bears are making the Class C state tournament look way too easy. On Friday night, inside the Four Seasons Arena, the Bears blew out Westby-Grenora 87-59 in the semifinal round, pushing the Bears into Saturday night's showdown with Arlee for the state championship.

The Bears led wire-to-wire in a game that was never in doubt, and now they get a chance to play the West's top team, the Warriors (24-1), who outlasted Northern C power Belt in Friday night's other semifinal.

"It feels really good and I'm still hungry," The Boy said. "I think winning this game just made me 10 times hungrier. Can't really explain it. I'm glad we get this chance."

The Boy, Jerrod Four Colors and Pernell Morsette each topped the 20-point barrier Friday night, leading Box Elder to its second state title game in three years. The Bears beat the Thunder for the 2014 state championship, while Arlee lost the state title a year ago.

"It's going to be pretty amazing," Box Elder head coach Jeremy MacDonald said. "We were looking back at the previous state title games, and there's only been one time were we've had two predominantly Native schools face off.

"That was Heart Butte and Hays Lodgepole in 2002. So a little bit of history (Saturday). We are expecting a pretty wild atmosphere. It will be pretty cool to be a part of that."