Top-seeded Hawks fly by Tornadoes

The District 9C boys basketball tournament is finally back at the Havre High Gymnasium as eight teams fight for three spots to next week's Northern C Divisionals. The action got started Wednesday afternoon as No. 1 seed Chester-Joplin-Inverness faced off with No. 8 seed Turner.

The Hawks demonstrated why they earned the top seed as they defeated the Tornadoes, 56-19, to begin tournament play. While they faced some adversity early on, the Hawks eventually found their footing to pull away for the win.

"We started out a little slow, we had a little rust," CJI head coach Joe Horel said. "Once we started defending a little bit and taking the shots we needed to, it turned out OK."

Both teams struggled to get buckets to start the game. The Hawks took an early 4-0 lead because Blake Harmon and Braden Mattson each knocked down a pair of free throws. With about five and a half minutes left in the opening quarter, Harmon made a layup for the first bucket of the 9C tournament.

After a bucket from Karson Pulst to make it 8-0, Trent Billmayer made a free throw to get Turner on the scoreboard with three minutes left in the frame. But a 3-pointer from Pulst and a free throw from Bryce Kammerzell gave the Hawks a 12-1 lead at the end of the quarter.

"We had good looks at the basket, we just couldn't get them to fall," Turner head coach Johannas Brown said about the slow start on offense. "We had a tough start at the beginning of our game with our inability to score."

The first few minutes of the second quarter saw both teams struggle to put the ball through the hoop. With about five-and-a-half left in the half, Kammerzell got a shot to go in, making it 14-1. A few moments later, Carson Maloney got the first field goal of the game for the Tornadoes. But Harmon responded with a personal 6-0 run to stretch the lead to 20-3 with three-and-a-half left in the first half.

The Tornadoes did find some momentum with a 7-4 run to end the half. Trever Kimmel led the way as he knocked down a pair of shots A free throw from Charlie Calvert cut the CJI lead to 24-10 heading into halftime. Brown believes the newly found offense came from their defensive end.

"Through the whole game, I thought the boys were playing excellent defense," Brown said.

But the Hawks retook momentum to start the third as they dominated on both ends. The Hawks got rolling on offense and they scored 23 points in the quarter. Mattson had his best stretch of the game as he scored 11 points during the frame. Meanwhile, the Tornadoes struggled to put the ball through the hoop. Their only points in the quarter came on a pair of free throws from Tate Beck with about 30 seconds left in the quarter.

"In the third quarter, the guys came out and defended well," Horel said. "They finished their shots a little bit better and just overall played a little bit better team basketball."

With a 47-12 lead heading to the fourth quarter, the Hawks cruised to a win to open the tournament. Mattson finished the game with 13 points on 4-for-7 shooting from the field and 4-for-4 shooting from the charity stripe. Harmon finished the afternoon with 12 points as he shot 5-for-8 from the field. Beck led Turner with six points.

With the loss, the Tornadoes head to the consolation bracket where they will try to make a run at third place. If they are going to win today and keep their season alive, the Tornadoes will need to get the offense going.

"We're going to take the momentum off of our good defensive play tonight and then we're going to add some good offensive play tomorrow morning to match that," Brown said.

The Hawks now advance to the tournament semifinals tonight. They will be looking to build off this win as they try to make a run at a district championship.

"It's good to get your feet set in the tournament and that was a good game to do it with," Horel said. "We aren't looking beyond anybody. We never looked beyond Turner and we won't look beyond (Chinook) tomorrow night."

CJI will play Chinook in the semifinals tonight at 7 p.m. at HHS Gymnasium. Turner played Fort Benton in a consolation game earlier this morning.

CJI 56, Turner 19

CJI - 12 12 23 9 - 56

TUR - 1 9 2 7 - 19

CJI - Braden Mattson 13, Blake Harmon 12, Nate Nelson 11, Karson Pulst 8, Bryce Kammerzell 7, Kyle Harmon 3, Patrick Dahlin 2.

TUR - Tate Beck 6, Trever Kimmel 5, Charlie Calvert 4, Carson Maloney 2, Trent Billmayer 1.

3-pointers: CJI 3-15 (Karson Pulst 2, Braden Mattson 1), TUR 1-15 (Trever Kimmel 1). Fouls: CJI 11, TUR 12. Fouled Out: None.