Orange Crush: Chinook girls down Bears

The Chinook girls basketball team is experienced, and are the defending District 9C champions to boot. But those facts didn’t stop the Sugarbeeters from having to deal with some opening-game jitters in their semifinal bout against the young Box Elder Bears.

Still, Chinook, which went unbeaten during the 9C’s regular season, proved too much for the Bears and advanced to yet another 9C championship game under head coach Charlie Robinson. Thursday afternoon at the Havre High gymnasium, the Beeters improved to 18-1 by beating the Bears 52-30 in the 9C semifinals.

“We got those first-game jitters out of the way,” Chinook senior Emily Dennis said. “We knew we would have to play well today because we understand we’re going to get everybody's best shot right now.”

Chinook did get Box Elder’s best shot, especially in the first half.

The Beeters struggled to make open shots early on, and Box Elder was able to keep things close as a result. The Bears trailed just 12-9 at the end of the first quarter. Then, early in the second, Box Elder took the lead on a Kiona Gardipee layup. But Chinook answered with a 3-pointer from Katelyn Neibauer, which sparked the Beeters on a 9-2 run to finish the first half. Gardipee would add a late layup, but Chinook was able to go into halftime leading 23-19.

“We shot the ball very poorly in the first half,” Robinson noted. “We took way too many perimeter shots. We have to get the ball inside more. And I thought they (Bears) played well. They are a young team and they are going to be a force to be reckoned with in our league. They did a great job.”

But as well as Box Elder played in the first 16 minutes, Chinook had too much firepower and too much tournament experience on its side

Neibauer and Hannah Weber each made big shots as Chinook ripped off a 12-2 run in the final four minutes of the third quarter, and that broke the game wide open. Chinook led 42-25 at the end of the third, and while Box Elder had a chance to cut the lead to single digits with 7:06 left in the game, the Beeters held the Bears to just five points in the fourth quarter, and were able to win going away.

“I think the game was closer than the final score shows,” Robinson said. “I thought Box Elder did a really good job. But in the second half, we took much better care of the ball, and we made shots. We got the ball inside and we executed better, and that helped us build a bigger lead.”

Chinook did shoot better, going for 47 percent in the second half as opposed to under 40 in the first. Neibauer also knocked in two threes which sparked the Beeters offensively. On the defensive end, Chinook out-rebounded the much smaller Bears 32-20, and also forced them into a game-high 28 turnovers. Makhayla Farmer led the way with 13 points, despite getting into foul trouble in the first half. Tavin Schneider had a strong game as well, scoring 11 points in the paint and grabbing seven rebounds. Neibauer added nine points and Weber totaled eight.

Meanwhile, Box Elder (11-9) was held to just 22 percent shooting in the second half, and the turnovers were costly. Leilani Gardipee and Tyrah Gopher paced the Bears with seven points each, but the Bears were a disappointing 0-for-6 from beyond the arc. Box Elder will now try and keep its Northern C hopes alive by facing off against winless Hays-Lodge Pole in a loser-out game this afternoon.

Chinook, on the other hand, is back in the 9C title bout with a chance to repeat as district champions. But Robinson knows Saturday night’s game against rival North Star won’t be an easy task. Still, he was proud of his team for coming out and earning the first step, which was to get to the championship game on Saturday night.

“It was a struggle at times today,” Robinson said. “But we won and that’s really all that matters in this tournament.

“As for the next game, it’s going to be tough,” he continued. “Those teams in the other semifinal are both talented and athletic teams. And even though we beat them during the regular season, they were all tough games. So we’re going to have to be at our best in that game.”

Saturday night’s 9C championship game between Chinook and North Star will tip off at 6 p.m. at the HHS gymnasium. It’s also a rematch of the 2013 championship game. The winner gets an automatic berth into next week’s Northern C.

Chinook 52, Box Elder 30

Chinook 12 11 19 10 – 52

Box Elder 9 10 6 5 – 30

Chinook – Brooke Nicholson 1-3 1-6 3, Emily Dennis 1-3 0-0 2, Hannah Weber 3-8 1-5 8, Talya Johnson 2-6 2-2 6, Makhayla Farmer 5-7 3-4 13, Katelyn Neibauer 3-5 1-4 9, Tavin Schneider 5-9 1-1 11. Totals 20-43 9-26 52.

Box Elder – Alyssa Lamere 1-3 0-0 2, Kiona Gardipee 1-5 2-2 4, Leilani Gardipee 2-6 3-4 7, Tia Russell 1-2 0-0 2, Alicia Wolf Chief 1-7 0-0 2, Stephanie Sutherland 1-4 0-0 2, Tyrah Gopher 3-5 1-6 7, Jaynee Parisian 1-2 0-0 2, Dominique Nault 1-3 0-0 2. Totals: 12-40 6-14 30.

3-pointers: Chinook 3-8 (Weber 1, Neibauer 2), Box Elder 0-6; Rebounds: Chinook 32 (Schnieder 7), Box Elder 25 (K. Gardipee 5); Fouls: Chinook 13, Box Elder 20; Fouled out: None.