Area girls teams will be a threat at the Northern C

The District 9C has always made its presence felt at the Northern C Divisional Tournament, and that will be the case again this week in Great Falls. However, there's also a changing of the guard so to speak.

Fort Benton and Turner return to the Northern C, each for the third straight year, but defending state champion Box Elder will not be back, instead, Hays-Lodge Pole is in. And, the three-time defending 9C champion Longhorns are now the favorite.

Still, like always, with the likes of Belt and Roy-Winifred, the Northern C will not be for the faint of heart, as it gets underway Wednesday and runs through Saturday night. It will be tough, and the two teams that advance to next month's State C Tournament in Missoula, will truly have earned it.

"The Northern C is brutal," Fort Benton head coach Cassie Pimperton said. "You've had state champions and state runners-ups two years in a row. We've got to bring our game and play."

Pimperton knows just how brutal. Her Longhorns won both the 2018 and 2019 9C tournaments, and yet, they didn't make it out of the Northern C. That's hoping that 21-0 Fort Benton hopes to change this week.

The Longhorns will play Simms (16-5) Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in the first round of a Northern C they are hoping to capture. The Tigers are the 10C runner-up, and they've had a good season. Of course, Fort Benton's road to Missoula will have to also go through the dynasty that is the Belt Huskies (20-1). Head coach Jeff Graham's team beat Roy-Winifred in an 8C showdown last weekend, and the Huskies play Valier (10-11) Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. in the opening round with the winner likely facing the Longhorns for a spot in the championship game on the line.

The girls tournament, under its new format, opens Wednesday night with upstart Hays-Lodge Pole (13-9) facing DGS (13-9) in the first round. It will be HLP's first divisional tournament game in 33 years, and it's one that head coach Cory Morgan, leading scorer Mulleah Stiffarm, and the talented T-Birds are excited for.

"The first game we'll be playing third place in the 8C," Morgan said. "It will be Denton-Geyser-Stanford. We played some summer ball with them and in non-conference games, so we got to prepare, and we're going to go give it our best shot like we did at the 9C tournament."

The winner of that game will move into the quarterfinals against 10C champion Augusta Thursday at 8:30 p.m. The Elks (19-2) have been one of the surprise teams in Class C this season and haven't been to the Northern C in a while either.

The final quarterfinal game pits 9C runner-up Turner (14-7) against last defending Northern C champion Roy-Winifred. The Outlaws (19-2) beat Box Elder in the Northern C chipper a year ago, before losing to the Bears in the state title game. Now, they'll play Turner, which is no longer the Cinderella story of the Northern C. Led by stars Sarah Billmayer and Shyan Krass, the Tornadoes are making their third straight trip to Great Falls, and they're striving for more this week.

"We got to come in with our focus and take it one game at a time," Turner head coach Julie Welsh said. "You take divisionals one game at a time. It's a crazy atmosphere, so you have to just keep everybody focused, rested and healthy."

The Tornadoes came within one win of playing for a chance at state last year, which just goes to show how exciting the Northern C can be. And this week will be no different. Under the new format, the girls semifinals will be Friday at 7 and 8:30 p.m., while the consolation game will be Saturday at 7 p.m. and the championship game will be held Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. Any Northern C challenge games will be played Monday night back in Great Falls.

The 2020 Northern C will start Wednesday afternoon and run through Saturday night in Great Falls with the top two teams advancing to the combined Class C state tournament March 11-14 in Missoula.