Bears belong among Class C's greatest

GREAT FALLS - Over the past three years, the Box Elder boys basketball team has dominated Class C basketball. It has also won over fans from across the state of Montana, not just for what it does on the floor, but what it does off it as well.

Yet that story has been told. We all know what great community and school leaders the Bears are and have been, starting with head coach Jeremy MacDonald and going down through all of the players such as Brandon The Boy, Jerrod Four Colors, Jake Jones, Tristan Bernard, Bodis Duran, Elias Duran, Shane Ketchum, Pernell Morsette and others.

These men have inspired their community with their work ethic, their pride, their success and their values. The overwhelming fan support they had the Four Seasons Saturday night in Great Falls and throughout their title run, was evidence of that.

But this is more than a team of great people and great leaders, simply put, it's one of the greatest Class C basketball teams the state of Montana has ever seen.

Sure, the Bears would have a better argument had they won three straight titles, but they didn't. What they did do, was go 76-3 over three years. And in that time, they won three District 9C championships,four divisional championships and most importantly, two state championships.

The Class C basketball championship has been contested in the state of Montana since 1950 and in that time, few teams have achieved what the Bears have. In fact, in the long history of Class C, only five teams have won back-to-back championships and just one team, Belfrey (1952-54) has ever 3-peated.

Other than Belfrey, the other four teams to repeat as Class C champions were Absarokee in 1985-86, Chester in 1991-92, KG in 1998-99 and Heart Butte in 2000 and 2001. Outside of those teams, the only other team that won two titles in three seasons as Box Elder did, was Plenty Coups, which won championships in both 1981 and 1983.

So regardless of how you slice it, there really is no debate that the Bears deserve to be mentioned among the best teams to play in Class C. But, with the way that high school sports have changed in this state over the past 50 years, or even the last 20 years, it's also really hard to definitively say they are any better than any of the other teams listed above.

But it is easy to say that this Bears team is one of the best that we have ever seen. And in truth, they could do it all. Their pressure defense was legendary and even great teams such as Belt and Arlee were befuddled with it. The Bears got outstanding guard play from the best point guard in Class C, The Boy. Not only was he a tremendous scorer during the postseason, he was also incredibly efficient. In three championship games, in three straight weeks, the soon-to-be, three-time All-State selection was incredible. He made 30-of-41 attempts from the field, which works out to an astounding 73 percent. And in three games at state, he averaged just under 23 points a game.

Yet, The Boy was hardly Box Elder's only weapon. Four Colors was also impressive for the Bears, as he dominated the state tournament. In the championship game against Arlee, he posted 26 points and 15 rebounds, capping a three-game span that saw him average 18 points and 10 rebounds a game. There aren’t many duos as prolific as The Boy and Four Colors, but the thing that made the Bears so dangerous and so dominant, is that even beyond those two, they were loaded with talent.

Morsette might be the best player in the 9C next season and he’s already an All-State caliber player. Then, the Bears had a group of five seniors that all contributed in their own ways. Ketchum is another that will earn All-State honors, while Jones, Bernard, and the Duran brothers all played vital roles both on offense and defense. And having eight players, seven of them seniors, with that skill level, allowed the Bears to do things other teams can’t.

It allowed them to play a pressure defense that no team could thwart and keep an offensive pace few could match. Those two facets combined, made the Bears practically unbeatable and if you need more proof of just how dominant they were, just look at who they played and how they beat them.

The Bears won districts by defeating a thrice-beaten Chester-Joplin-Inverness team, a team that tied Box Elder for the regular season title in the 9C, 88-71. Then, after two lopsided wins at the Northern C, the Bears took down Belt, the defending Class C state champions.

Then, at state, the Bears defeated Reed Point-Rapelje, Westby-Grenora and Arlee, three of the top eight teams in the state, in dominating fashion, scoring 88 points a game and allowing just 53.

The bottom line is that this Bears team faced every possible challenger and defeated them all with ease. After an early-season loss to C-J-I, Box Elder won every game the rest of the way and not a single one of them, was decided by less than 10 points.

Box Elder came into the 2015-16 season with unfinished business and ended it by achieving something only a handful of Class C teams ever have. Ultimately, it’s hard to say the Bears are the best Class C has ever seen, but, you would also be hard-pressed to say that any team or anyone, has ever done it better, than the Bears.