Longhorns aim high in Billings

The 2021 season has been a strong one for the Fort Benton boys basketball team. The Longhorns finished the regular season with only one loss and then repeated as District 9C Tournament champions. The Longhorns then made it to the Northern C Divisional championship game, where they won a tight overtime game over Belt to repeat as divisional champions.

Now, Fort Benton has one more postseason tournament as they aim to win the State Class C Boys Basketball Tournament this week in Billings.

The Longhorns will face either Froid-Lake Thursday at 11 a.m. Froid-Lake finished second in the Eastern C Divisional and has a record of 17-2. Fort Benton head coach Tyler Pasha will focus on how to overcome the size of Froid-Lake's players.

"Their starting five is all above six feet," Pasha said. "That will be a matchup problem with their height for us."

By the time the Longhorns hit the hardwood to open the tournament, they will have had 11 days off to prepare. With the time off, the Longhorns have focused on getting healthy and refining their basic plays.

"Trying to just get ourselves healthy from our bumps and bruises that we might have through districts and divisionals," Pasha said. "Going over all of our set plays to really solidify what we're supposed to be doing and making sure that all of the little things are taken care of leading up to this point. We aren't trying to get too fancy with any new plays."

Fort Benton may not get too fancy, but, the Longhorns, who have just one loss on the season, won't need to.

With senior Hayden Diekhans averaging over 20 points per game in the postseason, and veterans like Jace Thompson and William Ullery providing leadership, Fort Benton is a dangerous team. Depth will also play a big role, as standouts like Nick Marias and Devin Bird will be key to the Longhorn's drive towards a state champonship, which is certainly the goal this weekend in Billings.

If Fort Benton wins, they will face the winner of Bridger and Twin Bridges. Bridger comes into the tournament after winning the Southern C Divisional and going undefeated in the regular season.They are coming off a 65-50 win over Broadus to win the Southern C.

Twin Bridges finished second in the Western C Divisional and have a 14-2 record on the season. Twin Bridges is hoping to rebound from the Western C championship game where they lost to Manhattan Christian, 67-23. Bridger and Twin Bridges will face off on Thursday at 9 a.m.

The tournament will kick off tomorrow at 1 p.m. as Eastern C champion Scobey plays against Broadus. Scobey finished the regular season with a record of 13-0 and come into the tournament as last year's state co-champions. Scobey defeated Froid-Lake, 69-44, to win the Eastern C and clinch a spot in the state tournament.

Broadus comes into state after a season where they went 16-3 and finished second in the Southern C Divisional. After losing to Bridger in the Southern C championship, Broadus had to win a challenge game against Melstone to qualify for the state tournament.

The winner of that matchup will face the victor of the game between Manhattan Christian and Belt that will be held tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. Manhattan Christian won the Western C Divisional with a dominant, 67-23, win over Twin Bridges and they went undefeated in the regular season. They also won the last State Class C Boys Basketball Tournament championship game in 2019.

Belt comes into state after finishing second in the Northern C and going 15-1 in the regular season. Belt is coming off a championship game where they lost to Fort Benton, 46-45, in overtime.

If Fort Benton wants to stand out amongst all these teams and win their first state title since 1950, they will need to execute on both ends of the court.

"It's going to take our defense and hopefully a few key shots," Pasha said. "We need to get our offense rolling a little bit because these teams from around the state that are making this tournament, they are scoring machines and we got to make sure that we can keep up a little bit with our offense."

The State Class C Boys Basketball Tournament begins Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Lockwood High School in Billings. There are two first-round games Wednesday and two on Thursday. The loser-out games will be played Friday at 9 and 11 a.m. and two games Saturday at 9 a.m. The consolation game is set for Saturday at 3 p.m. with the state championship game slated for 7:30 p.m. Saturday night. The Longhorns open with GFroid-Lake on Thursday morning.