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Fort Benton girls turn away North Star in the semis
Fort Benton's Alia Evans, left, drives the ball during Thursday night's District 9C semifinal with North Star at the HHS gymnasium. The Longhorns won to reach their second championship game in the last three years, which comes tonight at 8:30.
North Star's Sheridan Spicher brings the ball up during Thursday night's 9C girls semifinal.
Lily Pedersen handles the ball during the Knights' semifinal game against Fort Benton Thursday night.
North Star's Paij Peterson shoots during Thursday's semifinal game at the HHS gymnasium.
Fort Benton's Coya Nack takes a shot during Thursday night's win over North Star at the HHS gymnasium.
Leah Gannon takes a shot during Thursday's 9C semifinal game.
Fort Benton's Maddie Thompson lays up a basket during Thursday night's game against North Star at the HHS gymnasium.
Close games haven’t been the norm at the 2017 District 9C girls basketball tournament, but when there is as much at stake as there was Thursday night in the semifinals, there was bound to be a tight battle at some point.
And the North Star Knights and Fort Benton Longhorns were the ones to deliver it. In the end, after a back-and-forth battle, and thanks to a 14-0 run in the third quarter, the Longhorns prevailed 61-47, earning their way into the 9C championship game and the Northern C Divisional tournament for the second time in three years.
“We are excited about going to divisionals,” Fort Benton head coach Cassie Scheffelmaier said. “But I don’t want the girls to get complacent either. We have bigger goals that we want to achieve.”
In the opening stanza, the two teams traded buckets to start the game, before Fort Benton jumped out to a 12-6 lead. Yet, a 3-pointer by Katelyn Hansen near the end of the period made it just 12-9 in favor of the Longhorns.
In the second quarter, the Knights opened by scoring six of the first eight points to grab a 15-14 lead, their first since the opening minutes. Yet the Longhorns responded with a 9-0 run that included a bucket by Leah Gannon and a trey by McKenzie Clark that made it 23-15. Yet, the Knights mustered up a run of their own and a hoop by Paij Peterson trimmed the lead to 23-21. However, another 9-4 spurt to the end the half for the Longhorns gave them a 32-25 lead at intermission.
With a berth at divisionals on the line, the Knights flew out of the gates in the third quarter and scored seven straight points to tie the game at 32-32. The tying score came on a 3-point play by Chelsea Donaldson, who scored six points on her own in the first few minutes of the second half to put the Knights ahead 36-35.
Down by one and with Coya Nack, arguably the team’s best player on the bench in foul trouble, things looked bleak for Fort Benton. But after a timeout, the Longhorns responded. Gannon, a sophomore, hit twice from downtown and also scored another bucket to cap a 14-0 run that put Fort Benton back in front 49-36, after three quarters, the Longhorns led 49-38.
“I think that at that point, the girls just realized we needed to step up defensively,” Sheffelmaier said. “We realized our big girl was out and they had to step up and they were able to do that. It was a great effort by them.”
“We let them go on a run offensively,” Gannon said. “So we just had to get our assignments down and start making some shots.”
Early in the final stanza, Clark connected on her second trey of the game, extending the lead to 52-38. The three also sparked another spurt that ended in the Longhorns leading 56-38 after a 21-3 run that spanned two quarters. North Star never got within single digits again as Fort Benton managed to salt away a win and a berth at divisionals for the second time in three years.
Gannon was the leading scorer for the Longhorns, thanks to a game-high 21 points. Alia Evans also had 10 as did Clark. Hansen led the Knights with 15 points; Peterson added 11 and Donaldson finished with six.
While the Longhorns (15-3) are assured of playing in Great Falls next week at the Northern C, they have another goal in mind: a second 9C championship in the past three seasons. Fort Benton won the tournament back in 2015, its first trip to the 9C after joining prior to that season.
“We are really excited,” Scheffelmaier said. “Box Elder is a great team and it should be a great game.”
“I think everyone is really excited about it,” Gannon said. “We worked hard and we deserve the chance at it.”
The Longhorns will do battle tonight with the defending 9C champions Box Elder. Tip-off time inside the HHS gymnasium is set for 8:30. North Star will look to battle back, hoping to reach tonight's consolation game, which is set for 7.
Fort Benton 61, North Star 47 SF
NS 9 16 13 9 – 47
FB 12 20 17 12 – 61
Fort Benton - Kaitlyn Bird 4, Madison Thompson 7, Coya Nack 9, Leah Gannon 21, Alia Evans 10, McKenzie Clark 10. Totals: 20 16-27.
North Star – Katelyn Hansen 15, Paij Peterson 11, Lily Pedersen 4, Sheridan Spicher 5, Chelsea Donaldson 6, Peytan King 6. Totals: 16. 13-22.
Fouls: North Star 20, Fort Benton 16. Fouled out – Peterson. 3-pointers: Fort Benton 5 (Gannon 2, Clark 2, Evans); North Star 2 (Hansen, Peterson).
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