District 9C boys bracket looks wide open

After competing against one another over the course of the regular season, District 9C boys basketball teams will finally go at it in the District 9C Tournament this week at Havre High Gymnasium. With eight teams fighting for three spots in the Northern C Divisional, it is sure to be an exciting and competitive week of basketball on the Hi-Line.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of good basketball to be played,” Box Elder head coach Jeremy Macdonald said. “The 9C’s been extremely competitive this season. We’ve had a lot of teams beating each other and it’s going to come down to who’s playing their best basketball at the end of the season.”

The Box Elder Bears will begin the tournament with a game against the Hays-Lodge Pole Thunderbirds Thursday at 11 a.m. The Bears enter the tournament as the No. 1 seed after going 15-3 in the regular season and 12-2 in the 9C.

In both of the past two district tournaments, the Bears finished fourth to just miss the Northern C Divisional. If they want to finally break through this season, they will need their best players to continue playing well. Tuarie Stiffarm-Rosette has been a reliable scorer for the Bears while Tracen Jilot is capable of making an impact on the scoreboard.

The HLP T-Birds enter the tournament as the No. 8 seed after going 2-16 in the regular season and 1-13 in the 9C. This past season, Box Elder swept the season series against HLP by scores of 81-31 and 109-71. If the T-Birds want to go on a surprise run this week, they will need players such as William Hughes and Davontae Sullivan to light it up.

The winner of that game will then face either the Fort Benton Longhorns or the Turner Tornadoes, who play each other Thursday at 12:30 p.m. Fort Benton enters the tournament as the No. 4 seed after finishing the season with a 13-5 overall record and a 9-5 conference record.

The Longhorns will look to win the 9C again after doing so in 2021. If they want to do that, they will need players such as Cody Evans, Brock Grossman and Landis Arganbright to play well this weekend.

The Turner Tornadoes enter the tournament as the No. 5 seed with an overall record of 9-9 and a conference record of 5-9. Over the course of the season, Turner has been led by the likes of Ryan Doyle, Caleb Zellmer, Trent Billmayer and Charlie Calvert.

This past season, the Longhorns and Tornadoes split their games with each team winning at home. On the neutral court, Turner head coach Darci Ammen believes her team will need to play a complete game to defeat Fort Benton and other tough teams like it.

“We really need to consistently put four quarters together offensively and defensively,” Ammen said. “We demonstrated that when we beat CJI at home here recently and when we beat Chinook. It was really about just executing all four quarters.”

The tournament will continue Thursday at 4 p.m. with the Chester-Joplin-Inverness Hawks playing the North Star Knights. The CJI Hawks enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed with a 14-4 overall record and a 10-4 conference record. The Hawks have been led on offense by the likes of Karson Pulst and Blake Harmon, but CJI head coach Joe Horel believes defense will be key to repeating as District 9C champions.

“The boys have defended pretty well and I think we need to keep that up,” CJI head coach Joe Horel said. “We can’t take any plays off. The teams that are good enough in conference that if you take a defensive set off, they score on you so the boys are going to come out ready to go right off the bat.”

The North Star Knights enter the tournament as the No. 6 seed after going 7-11 during the season with a 4-10 record in conference play. During the season, the Hawks swept the Knights by scores of 58-35 and 57-46. If the Knights want to upset the Hawks, they will need players such as Gavin Clawson, Gavin Spicher and Garrett Spicher to get going.

The winner of that contest will go on to play either the Big Sandy Pioneers or the Chinook Sugarbeeters, who will play each other Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The Pioneers enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed after a 15-3 regular season with an 11-3 record in conference games.

The Pioneers return to the tournament after finishing second at last year’s district tournament. The Pioneers are capable of doing so again as they have many athletes that can cause problems for any opponent. Players such as Isaac Pedraza and Kody Strutz are capable of putting up the points. Even if they are slowed down, opponents will have to limit the likes of Lane Demontiney and Braydone Cline.

Chinook enters the tournament as the No. 7 seed after going 5-13 during the season and 4-10 in conference play. During the season, Big Sandy swept Chinook by scores of 67-52 and 72-42. If the Sugarbeeters want to hang with the Pioneers, players such as Jackson Nordboe and Braxton Inman to score some points. More importantly, they will need to play some aggressive defense.

“When we show up with a lot of defensive intensity and force turnovers, we’re able to generate a lot of positive momentum and some quick offense for us,” Chinook head coach Chad Jones said. “When we’re not able to get out and run, we need to take care of the ball and get the most out of each possession.”

The winners of these games will compete in the semifinals Friday at 4 and 5:30 p.m. The winners of those games will then clinch spots in the Northern C Divisional and then compete against one another in the District 9C championship game on Saturday at 5:30 p.m.

The losers of the opening games will compete in loser-out games Friday at 8 and 9:30 a.m. The winners of those games then stay alive to compete in another pair of loser-out games Saturday at 9:30 and 11 a.m. The winners of those games will then face each other in the consolation game Saturday at 4 p.m. The winner of that game takes third in the tournament and clinches the last spot for the Northern C Divisional.

The District 9C Boys Basketball Tournament will begin at HHS Gymnasium this Thursday at 11 a.m. The top three teams advance to next week’s Northern C Divisional in Great Falls.