Orange Crush: Beeters roll in to 9C semis

No one expects a blowout at tournament time. After all, the postseason is a new beginning for everybody. But, thanks to an incredibly good first half, a blowout win is exactly what the Chinook Sugarbeeters got in the opening round of the District 9C boys tournament.

The third-seeded Beeters jumped all over Big Sandy in a 66-25 win Thursday afternoon inside the Havre High School gymnasium. The win pushed Chinook into tonight’s semifinal with yet another chance at the vaunted Box Elder Bears.

“I was very pleased with our effort and our intensity,” Chinook head coach Mike Seymour said. “You know, overall, we’re still a very young team. We don’t have that much experience in this tournament. So for us to come out and play as well as we did, I was really happy.”

Seymour was especially happy with the way his Beeters came out focused, and intent on not letting Big Sandy have any chance to an upset. Chinook started the game by outscoring the Pioneers 11-2, and when Brendan Edwards drilled a 3-pointer, Chinook was up 16-5 after just eight minutes.

And the Beeters were just getting started. Kyler Johnson opened the second quarter with a trey, which ignited a 14-0 Chinook run. In that run, Cord Schneider and Wade Schneider scored easily in the paint, and when Edwards got a putback two at the 1:41 mark of the first half, the Beeters were ahead 36-7, and would eventually take a 42-9 lead into intermission.

“We play 10 guys and all 10 of them contributed in that first half,” Seymour said. “I thought we did a lot of good things. Our size is important. We are the tallest team in this tournament and we have to exploit that when we can. All of our bigs did a really good job in the first half, and going forward, we need to continue to do that. We need to recognize mismatches when we get them and take advantage of them. And we need to continue to rebound as well as we did today. Those things are key for us. They were today and they will be going forward.”

Before Chinook could start to think about moving forward, the Beeters had to finish off the Pioneers, which they did with the mercy rule in effect for much of the second half. Chinook’s bench came in and continued to play well, with the Beeters building their lead to 57-14 after three quarters. And while Ryan Roth buried a couple of triples for Big Sandy in the fourth, the Pioneers were simply overwhelmed from start to finish.

Roth led Big Sandy with 10 points, while Chinook held Pioneer star junior Bryant Jones to just nine. The Beeters also held the Pioneers, who played in a loser-out game this morning, to just 22 percent shooting, while forcing them into 24 turnovers.

Offensively, the Beeters (14-5) were balanced with Cord Schneider scoring 16 points and Wade Schneider adding 10. Edwards finished with seven as the Beeters pushed themselves into tonight’s showdown with four-time 9C champion Box Elder.

“We have to take care of the basketball,” Seymour said. “I think we had 17 turnovers today. That’s too many. We have to handle their pressure and stay in control. The two times we played them this season, we had the tempo where we wanted it. That was in our favor, and we need to do that again tomorrow night. They’re a really good basketball team. Very talented and well-coached. So we have to come out and be ready to play again right from the start of the game.”

Tonight’s semifinal between Box Elder and Chinook will tip at 5:30. The winner will not only advance to the Northern C next week in Great Falls, but also play either Hays-Lodge Pole or North Star in Saturday night’s championship game.

Chinook 66, Big Sandy 25

Big Sandy 5 4 5 11 - 66

Chinook 16 28 13 9 -

Big Sandy - B. Jones 9, R. Roth 10, B. Prolux 2, K. Strutz 1, C. Darlington 3.

Chinook - T. Hannum 2, H. Neibauer 6, K. Johnson 6, J. Christensen 4, R. Kellam, K. McMaster 2, B. Edwards 7, C. Schneider 16, W. Schneider 10, F. NezPerce 6.

3-pointers: Edwards, Neibauer, Johnson. Fouls: Chinook 16, Big Sandy 10.