Longhorns corral a Northern C title

GREAT FALLS - For the second year in a row, the Northern C boys championship game was an all District 9C affair, and for the second year in a row, a 9C team won the championship for the first time in school history.

This time however, it was the Fort Benton Longhorns' turn, and it's something that had been building for more than five years.

Saturday night in the Four Seasons Arena, the Longhorns beat the Big Sandy Pioneers 57-39 in the 2020 Northern C championship game. The win gave Fort Benton its first Northern C crown, one week after it won its first 9C title. It also pushed the Longhorns to state for the first time since 1992, and, on top of it all, it improved the Horns' incredible record to 24-0 on the season.

"We've worked all year for this," Fort Benton's Hayden Diekhans said. "We've worked our butts off for this, every guy on this team. We couldn't be more proud of this.

"This group, these seniors, they've worked their tails off for a long time," Fort Benton head coach Tyler Pasha said. "So this feels amazing. I'm very proud of these guys. They deserve it."

The Longhorns had been building toward Saturday night's win for quite some time. Garrett Diekhans has played for the Horns since eighth grade, and, along with his head coach, had watched the progress each and every year.

"This was a huge step for the program," Pasha said.

"Our eighth grade year, we were undefeated," Garrett Diekhans said. "And we've just always been together. It's been the same group of guys with coach Pasha since then. So this is cool to accomplish this together. Our team, we really do have a brotherhood now, and we've just been about getting better, winning basketball games, and having fun."

The Longhorns certainly have been winning, but to hoist the Northern C trophy, they had to take the Cinderella slipper off of Big Sandy's foot.

The Pioneers, the No. 3 seed from the 9C, stunned defending champion and 9C rival Chinook in Friday night's semifinal, and they came out firing against Fort Benton Saturday night. Behind two early 3-pointers from Ryan Roth, Big Sandy led 12-10 after the first quarter.

Roth would hit another three early in the second stanza, but Logan Giles got hot down the stretch, and a late first-half bucket by Garrett Diekhans sent the Longhorns into halftime with a 23-19 lead.

"Big Sandy got hot, and that makes it tough," Pasha said. "They are playing so well right now. And I think in the first half, we were trying to win the game on one shot, and you can't win that way. So for us, it was about being patient and doing what we're supposed to do, and what we're capable of, and we did that in the second half."

As good as the Pioneers had been, they just couldn't slow down Fort Benton. Devin Bird opened the half with a bucket, and ultimately, the Longhorns were on a 9-0 run. Later in the third, Hayden Diekhans canned his second three of the night, which sparked another 9-0 spurt, and gave the Longhorns a 41-25 lead after three. A Jace Thompson bucket early in the fourth stretched the Fort Benton lead to 16 points, and while a Brock Proulx triple cut the Fort Benton lead down to 11 with 3:26 to play, the Horns' ultimately had no problem closing out the game and, Thompson said, his team's experience played a key role in Saturday night's win.

"This really goes back to last track season, where we finished third at state," Thompson said. "Then, we had a really good year in football. Last year, we didn't lose a game during the basketball regular season, and we didn't again this year. So I feel like this team has been really strong, and all of that time together, that's really helped us."

Hayden Diekhans paced the Longhorns, who also beat Belt in a tough semifinal game Friday night, with 17 points, while Garrett added 11 and Thompson scored nine. The Longhorns also held a decided edge on the board, out-rebounding the Pioneers 37-22, while also forcing Big Sandy into 16 turnovers.

On the other side, the Pioneers ran out of magic in the second half Saturday night and may have been a little fatigued. After having to come back in wins Wednesday and in overtime Thursday, then scoring the emotional win over Chinook Friday night, the chipper might have been a bit too much, as the Pioneers shot just 34 percent from the floor. Roth led the way with 12 points, and Big Sandy did hit five threes, but at the end of the day, it wasn't enough, and now, to get to their first state tournament since 2012 the Pioneers will have to beat Belt in a challenge game Monday night back in Great Falls.

"Oh, they're a helluva team," Big Sandy head coach Thomas Dilworth said of Fort Benton. "They've got a phenomenal coach, those Diekhans kids are just great ballplayers."

Fort Benton has been great, and now they're going to state. The Longhorns have been working to get to Missoula and their first Class C state tourney all season long, and Saturday night was the culmination of all of that work.

"There was some talk about how we come down here (Great Falls) and don't win the last couple of years," Hayden Diekhans said. "So we felt like we had something to prove this week. And we did that, and now it's on to state.

"There was pressure this year for sure," Garrett Diekhans said. "But this group has never got shook by any of it. This team has stuck together all season. I'm just really proud of this team.

"This is special," Pasha added. "Any time you can win a championship, it's a great accomplishment. And to win this tournament, when you have to come down here and you know you're going to play three tough games in this great environment, to do that, you've really done something. So I'm very proud of these guys."

Belt edges Chinook for third

The Chinook Sugarbeeters had a mountain to climb after losing to Big Sandy in the Northern C boys semifinals Friday night. In order to reach the state tourney, Chinook had to beat Centerville Saturday morning, which it did, then beat Belt in the consolation game, and hope for a challenge game Monday night, too.

In the end, though, the mountain was too tall.

In Saturday night's consolation game in the Four Seasons Arena, Chinook fell to Belt 52-47 to finish fourth after winning the Northern C a year ago. But, as heartbreaking as the loss was, nearly got there.

Trailing 30-27 at halftime, Chinook was held scoreless in the third quarter, and with a ton of foul trouble things looked bleak as the Huskies led by as many as 14 points in the fourth period. Then though, Chinook came alive. Behind 10 points in a four-minute stretch from Ethan Bell, Chinook went on a 16-2 run, and trailed just 45-43 with 1:21 to go and again 47-45 after Bell hit another runner in the lane with one minute left. From there, though, the Beeters missed a couple of opportunities, and Belt made just enough free throws to ice the game, and finish third.

It was a great comeback by the Beeters, who forced Belt into 11 turnovers in the final stanza. It was also a great performance by the Huskies, who lost to Fort Benton in Friday's semifinals, and who trailed the Beeters 15-10 after the first quarter, a quarter in which Reese Elliot was dominant for Chinook. Elliot would finish with 11 points, nine rebounds and three blocks, while Bell led the way with 15 points, despite missing a huge chunk of the game with fouls. Hunter Neibauer also scored 12 for the Beeters, who finished the season with a strong 18-7 record.

The Huskies will now play Big Sandy in a challenge game tonight, with the winner joining Fort Benton at the Class C state tournament, March 11-14 in Missoula.

Northern C Boys

Fort Benton 57, Big Sandy 39, 1st

Big Sandy 12 7 6 14 - 39

Fort Benton 10 13 18 16 - 57

Big Sandy - Brock Proulx 9, Ryan Roth 12, Kody Strutz 2, Clint Darlington 8, Jeremiah Genereux 2, Kody Strutz 6.

Fort Benton - Devin Bird 4, Jace Thompson 9, Hayden Diekhans 17, Max Lane 6, Logan Giles 7, Billy Ullery 2, Garrett Diekhans 11, Tim Lane 1.

3-pointers (B. Proulx 1, Roth 2, K. Strutz 2, H. Diekhans 2). Fouls: Big Sandy 23, Fort Benton 11. Fouled out: None.

Belt 52, Chinook 47, 3rd

Belt 10 20 11 11 - 52

Chinook 15 12 0 20 - 47

Belt - Garrett Metrione 1, Aiden McDaniel 17, TJ Hennes 2, Hunter Vogl 11, Bridger Vogl 11, Kaiman Evans 13.

Chinook - Ethan Bell 15, Hunter Neibauer 12, Reese Elliot 11, Ethan MacLeod 2, Oskar Pula 7.

3-pointers: B. Vogl 2, H. Vogl 1. Fouls: Belt 11, Chinook 25; Fouled out: Toby Niederegger; Technical Fouls: Niederegger, Bell.

Chinook 68, Centerville 42, LO

Centerville 11 15 9 7 - 42

Chinook 15 19 18 16 - 68

CENTERVILLE: Carson McGinness 21; Grant Cotton 5; Kimi Morandi 4; Jacob Kelley 2; Cole Detton 2; Eathan Upchurch 2.

CHINOOK: Toby Niederegger 20; Ethan Bell 17; Hunter Neibauer 11; Reese Elliot 10; Oskar Pula 6; Ethan MacLeod 4.

Fort Benton 53, Belt 45, SF

Fort Benton 15 7 14 17 - 53

Belt 13 12 12 8 - 45

FORT BENTON: Garrett Diekhans 17; Jace Thompson 13; Hayden Diekhans 9; Max Lane 6; Logan Giles 5; Devin Bird 3.

BELT: Aiden McDaniel 15; Kaimen Evans 10; Garrett Metrione 6; TJ Hennes 5; Hunter Vogl 2.

Big Sandy 58, Chinook 48, SF

Chinook 6 13 10 19 - 48

Big Sandy 12 10 12 24 - 58

CHINOOK: Ethan Bell 17; Toby Niederegger 16; Hunter Neibauer 9; Reese Elliot 6.

BIG SANDY: Clint Darlington 18; Kody Strutz 15; Kade Strutz 15; Brock Proulx 6; Ryan Roth 4.