BEETING THE 9C

The Chinook Sugarbeeters dominated the District 9C in the regular season, sweeping through the conference undefeated. And this past week in Havre, the Beeters confirmed they were the best the 9C had to offer after an impressive run to the district championship.

Chinook started its journey with a win over Big Sandy, followed by a win in the semifinals against Fort Benton. Then, Friday night inside the HHS gymnasium, the Beeters completed the run with a hard-fought, 62-56 win over North Star.

“It feels good,” Chinook head coach Mike Seymour said. “I can’t explain it. It feels good. I am very proud of the boys. I am proud of how hard they worked all season and how hard they worked (Saturday). Give credit to North Star. Boy, they really came back and made a game out of it. We were up by 18 with two-something to go and they came back and made a game of it. Give credit to them. They are well-coached.”

Early on, the two teams traded blows back and forth, but an 8-3 run by Chinook to end the first quarter put the Beeters in front 14-9. Yet in the second quarter, Chinook started to separate itself. Cord Schneider scored a couple of times inside, including once on an offensive rebound. Then Isaac Bell added a 3-point play and a floater that sparked a 13-5 run that put the Beeters in front 27-16.

Bell added two more field goals before the first half was over, yet the Knights were able to stay within striking distance and at the intermission, they were down 35-24.

“Chinook is a tough team to handle,” North Star head coach Walynn Burgess said. “They are so long and they are really good. There is a reason they haven’t lost a game in the district.”

While Schneider and Bell were dominant in the championship game for Chinook, scoring a combined 50 points, North Star’s duo of Dylan and Devon Miller were also outstanding, and in the third quarter they helped the Knights close the gap a little. A late bucket by Dylan Miller got North Star within eight, 44-36 at the end of the third.

But in the fourth quarter, Bell, who scored 51 points in a win over Harlem earlier this season, simply took over. He hit from distance less than a minute into the stanza, and connected twice more from beyond the arc to put Chinook in front 58-40 with 3:44 remaining.

The Knights put a run together in the final minutes to tighten things up, but a slam dunk by Schneider with 1:16 left proved to be the final dagger.

“It felt pretty good,” Schneider said. “It had been a while since I got one. It livens the crowd up a little bit.

“Good players rise to the occasion,” Seymour said of Bell and Schneider. “And they are two really good players. I am fortunate to have both of them on my team and hopefully we can continue to ride this emotion for the next couple weeks and make some noise at divisionals in Great Falls.”

Bell was nothing short of spectacular in the win for Chinook, scoring a game-high 33 points on 11-of-17 shooting from the field. He was 3-of-4 from 3-point range and grabbed seven rebounds, while also dishing out four assists.

“It feels good,” Bell said. “It’s a really great feeling to be a district champion.”

Schneider agreed, saying, “It feels good. It’s been a long time since we won a district championship and it’s been a goal of ours for a really long time.”

While North Star fell short of the 9C championship, it got a spectacular effort from Dylan Miller, who scored 25 points. He also grabbed eight rebounds, had three assists and two steals. Devon Miller also had a solid game with 14 points and 11 rebounds. North Star will make its first trip to the Northern C Divisional Tournament since the 2006-07 season.

“Nobody should hang their heads, we get another week of basketball,” Burgess said. “Our guys were bummed, everyone wants to go get the chipper, but we are really proud of what we did.”

North Star will take on Sunburst Wednesday in the opening round at the Northern C. Chinook, on the other hand will play Winnett-Grass Range. The Northern C runs Wednesday through Friday in Great Falls.

Chinook Stands Tall

Chinook 62, North Star 56 , 1st

North Star 9 15 12 20 - 56

Chinook 14 21 9 18 - 62

North Star - Austin Hansen 2, Dylan Miller 25, Dane Miller 3, Caden Rettig 8, Hayden Massar 2, Devon Miller 14, Thomas Nerat 2. Totals: 22-44 9-14 56.

Chinook - Isaac Bell 53, James Christensen 2, Riley Kellan 6, Brendan Edwards 4, Cord Schneider 17. Totals: 28-49 3-8 62

3-pointers - Da. Miller, Rettig 2; I. Bell 3.