Longhorns stampede their way back against Turner

The Turner Tornadoes were on the verge of the District 9C boys semifinals. The Fort Benton Longhorns, though, said not so fast.

In the opening round of the 2023 9C boys tournament Thursday afternoon in the HHS gymnasium, Fort Benton ripped off 19 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to complete a 58-54 comeback win, and advance to today's semifinal.

"We just didn't give up on each other," veteran Fort Benton head coach Tyler Pasha said, "We stopped playing 1-on-5 and really started to play together. That, and getting some big defensive stops in the fourth quarter, that was the difference I think."

No doubt, Fort Benton owned the final stanza.

Trailing 43-38 with 7:06 left in the game, Fort Benton got back-to-back buckets from Lincoln Pfile and Landis Arganbright, and when Arganbright hit another shot with 5:08 to play, the Longhorns had went from down five points to up 46-43. It didn't stop there, however, as Fort Benton scored another 11 points to lead 55-43 with just over two minutes to play.

Turner fought hard, as Trent Billmayer hit two threes to cut back into the lead, but the Horns were able to make sure the game was put away at the free-throw-line.

"Turner is a great team," Pasha said. "They made open shots on us all game long. They play so hard. I just think we got the momentum in the fourth quarter. But that was a really hard-fought game against a really good Turner team."

The Tornadoes did play great.

Tied at 11-11 after the first quarter, Turner took the lead on a Tate Beck jumper with 5:40 left in the first half, and they wouldn't relinquish that lead until Fort Benton's run in the fourth period. Turner led 28-25 at intermission, and a trey by Billmayer put them up 37-32 late in the third. Ryan Doyle, who led all scores with 20 points, added a shot to give the Tornadoes a 41-38 after three.

To go along with Doyle's big game, Billmayer added 16 points and Beck had 10 for Turner (9-10), who had to face Hays-Lodge Pole in a loser-out game this morning. Turner also shot 38 percent from the floor and hit five treys.

Meanwhile, the fourth-seeded Longhorns (14-5) got 17 points from Arganbright, while Evans scored 16 and grabbed a whopping 22 rebounds. The boards were where Fort Benton dominated, out-rebounding the Tornadoes 48-18, and Pasha says his team will need to be even better when they meet top seed Box Elder in the semifinals today at 4.

"We'll have to stop their up and down game, we need to take care of the ball against their press," Pasha said of the match up with the Bears. "We'll need to make open shots, and really, try to play our style of game. Box Elder is really good. It's going to be a hard-fought game for sure."

Fort Benton 58, Turner 54

Turner 11 17 13 13 - 54

Fort Benton 11 14 13 20 - 58

Turner - Tate Beck 10, Caleb Zellmer 6, Charlie Calvert 2, Trent Billmayer 16, Ryan Doyle 20.

Fort Benton - Sam Smith 1, Eli Arganbright 3, Landis Arganbright 17, Lincoln Pfile 12, Turman Giese 2, Brock Grossman 5, Kellen Diekhans 2, Cody Evans 16.

3-pointers: E. Arganbright 1, L. Arganbright 1, Beck 2, Billmayer 4, Doyle 2. Fouls: Fort Benton 13, Turner 19; Fouled out: Billmayer.