Chinook boys roll to Great Falls

The Chinook Sugarbeeters and North Star Knights both wanted to earn a chance to play on the big floor at this week's Northern C Divisional inside the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls. And for a half, both teams had a chance to get there.

For a half.

In the end however, Chinook punched its ticket to the Northern C with an incredible second-half performance, on its way to a 48-24 win over the Knights in the District 9C boys consolation game Saturday night inside a sold-out HHS gymnasium.

Chinook, which will be the No. 3 team from the 9C, outscored the Knights 18-3 in the third quarter and limited North Star to just seven total points and one field goal in the second half.

"Very proud of my team," Chinook head coach Mike Seymour said. "Our defense was really good the whole game. The effort these boys gave on the defensive end was stellar."

Chinook's defense was stellar the whole way, even with the Beeters trailing 17-16 at halftime. North Star challenged Chinook early with big buckets by Devon and Dylan Miller, as the Knights led 10-9 after one. The second quarter saw Chinook briefly take the lead, but the Knights came right back with a triple from Dylan Miller, while Isaac Bell tightened things up by hitting his second 3-pointer of the half to send Chinook into intermission trailing by just one point.

From there, it was all Beeters on both ends of the floor. Chinook ripped off a 10-0 run early in the third quarter, and, at one point, outscored the Knights 17-2. The run was capped by a Hunter Neibauer triple, as the Beeters led 34-20 after three. Things stayed that way for the rest of the way, too. Chinook dominated in the post all second half, and North Star simply didn't have an answer, as the Knights' season came to an end.

"Offensively, we ran an offense we hadn't ran since before Christmas," Seymour said. "We knew we could take advantage with our bigs and they all did a great job. Our kids just played really well. We're a young team, but they rose to the occasion tonight, and I'm super proud of them."

The Beeters got a big game from Bell, who scored 18 points, while fellow sophomore Cord Schneider added 16. North Star, which was held to just 30 percent shooting, got 11 from Dylan Miller and nine more from Devon Miller.

The Beeters got to the consolation game with a 50-30 win over Fort Benton Saturday morning. Isaac Bell led three Beeters in double figures with 19 points, while Garret Diekhans had 10 in Fort Benton's last game of the season. North Star cruised as well Saturday morning. The Knights knocked out Turner 64-42, with Keevan Borlaug scoring a game-high 20 points. Eddie Harmon scored 15 for the Tornadoes, while Tracer Hellig added 13 and Cody Welsh scored 12. Turner reached Saturday morning with a win over Big Sandy Friday while Fort Benton eliminated Chester-Joplin-Inverness as well.

Friday also saw both the Beeters and Knights fall in the semifinals against Hays-Lodge Pole and Box Elder, respectively. HLP took the floor first and early on at least, North Star was competitive. The score was 10-5 early in the first quarter, when Jace Shambo scored three buckets to spark an 8-3 run that gave the T-Birds an 18-8 lead after one. HLP scored 32 points in the second quarter and took a 50-23 lead into halftime. Early in the third, North Star fought back a little, but a decisive 8-0 run for the T-Birds pushed the lead to 61-23 and put the game on ice.

"We didn't really shoot the ball well," HLP head coach Derek Shambo said. "But our guys played hard. They played really well defensively and were able to force a lot of turnovers."

Tyson and Jase Shambo each scored 18 for the T-Birds, who eventually lost to Box Elder in the championship game. North Star got 11 points each by Devon and Dylan Miller.

After seeing the T-Birds dismantle North Star, Box Elder decisively defeated Chinook. Yet it wasn't as easy as the other semifinal. The Bears led 13-5 at the end of the first and 34-20 at the half. In the third quarter, the Sugarbeeters came out firing. Wade Schneider and Cord Schneider each scored multiple times and with 5:06 left in the third, Box Elder's lead had shrunk to 38-30.

However, Pete Azure Jr. responded with a 3-pointer and a few minutes later, when Tanner Parisian knocked down a trey it was 54-34. Trey Henderson then added a 3-point play and suddenly the Bears led 58-37 entering the fourth quarter.

"They made a run at us," Box Elder head coach Jeremy MacDonald said. "But we got some big buckets there and that got us some momentum."

Parisian and Henderson each notched 17 for the now five-time champion Bears, while Chinook was paced by 17 points from Wade Schneider.

And while the loss to the Bears was tough, Chinook responded by winning back-to-back games Saturday, and will now be going back to the Northern C.

"We're a young team, but it's a confident team right now," Seymour noted. "We're confident that we'll go down there and play competitive basketball. This was a big goal for this team and I'm proud of them for getting there. But we're also excited to go down there and kept on playing."

The 2017 Northern C boys divisional begins Thursday and runs through Saturday night at the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls.

Friday

Hays-Lodge Pole 80, North Star 36, sf

HLP 18 32 22 8 - 80

NS 8 15 7 6 - 36

HLP: T. Shambo 18, J. Shambo 18, F. Runs Above 10, C. Main 10, R. Foote 4, C. Shambo 6, C. Strik 4, Kc Young 2, D. Main 1, T. Snow 6, D. Shambo 1.

North Star: Devan Miller 11, Dylan Miller 3, C. Chvilicek 3, Dane Miller 2, C. Rettig 1, J. Snow 3, H. Massar 4, K. Borlaug 7, B. Spicher 2.

Box Elder 77, Chinook 54, sf

Chinook 5 15 14 20 - 54

Box Elder 13 23 21 20 - 77

Chinook: W. Schneider 17, C. Schneider 11, T. Hanaum 4, H. Neibauer 7, K. Johnson 2, I. Bell 4, R. Kellam 2, K. McMaster 3, B. Edwards 4, F. NezPerce 2.

Box Elder: T. Parisian 17, T. Henderson 17, P. Morsette 16, D. Weiss 11, L. Benson 5, P. Azure 9, W. Caplette 2.

Fort Benton 56, CJI 53, lo

CJI 10 22 10 11 - 53

FB 16 14 12 14 - 56

Chester-Joplin Inverness: Andrew Woods 2, Spencer Richter 9, Evan Dahinden 6, Cory Richter 19, Tyler Wanken 17. Totals: 15 19-29.

Fort Benton: Damon Bird 3, Ty Hasbrouck 11, Hayden Diekhans 2, Logan Giles 7, Andy Giles 14, Garrett Diekhans 16, Jace Pimperton 3. Totals: 19 13-20.

3-pointers: S. Richter, Dahinden, C. Richter, Wanken, L. Giles, A. Giles 3, Pimperton.

Turner 66, Big Sandy 61, lo

Big Sandy 17 16 13 15 - 61

Turner 10 12 21 22 - 66

Big Sandy: Bryant Jones 24, Ryan Roth 9, Kade Strutz 3, Clint Darlington 14, Jordan Schwarzbach 11.

Turner: Jack Harmon 5, Cody Welch 27, Eddie Harmon 19, Shane Kimmel 4, Tracer Heiling 1.

Saturday

North Star 64, Turner 42, lo

North Star 14 17 22 10 -- 64

Turner 2 10 11 19 -- 42

North Star – Austin Hansen 1, Dylan Miller 6, Dane Miller 1, Jimmy Snow 15, Hayden Massar 4, Devon Miller 11, Keevan Borlaug 20, Bailey Spicher 2, Thomas Nerat 4. Totals: 25 11-20.

Turner – Austin Welsh 2, Cody Welsh 12, Eddie Harmon 15, Tracer Hellig 13. Totals: 17 7-14.

Three point goals – Snow 3, C. Welsh 1.

Chinook 59, Fort Benton 30, lo

Fort Benton 6 5 11 8 -- 30

Chinook 22 10 16 11 -- 59

Fort Benton – D. Bird 5, T. Hasbrouck 2, A. Giles 4, G. Dickhans 10, J. Pimperton 4, H. Dickhans 2, J. Thompson 3. Totals: 9 7-10.

Chinook – K. Johnson 3, I. Bell 19, J. Christensen 2, R. Kellam 1, K. McMaster 2, B. Edwards 3, C. Schneider 10, W. Schneider 12, F. Nez Perce 7. Totals: 25 7-16.

Three point goals – Bird 1, Giles 1, Thompson 1, Bell 1, Edwards 1.

Chinook 48, North Star 24, 3rd

North Star 9 8 3 4 – 24

Chinook 10 6 18 14 – 48

North Star – Dylan Miller 11, Caden Rettig 1, Devon Miller 9, Keevan Borlaug 1. Totals 6 10-22 24.

Chinook – Hunter Neibauer 7, Kyler Johnson 2, Isaac Bell 18, James Christensen 1, Brendan Edwards 2, Cord Schneider 12, Wade Schneider 6. Totals 17 10-16 48.

3-point – Miller 2; Neibauer, Bell 3.