By George Ferguson/Havre Daily News Sports/gferguson@havredailynews.com
GREAT FALLS - The Chester girls basketball team did not have the honor of calling itself District 10C champions last week in Shelby. But on Saturday night at the Northern C girls divisional basketball tournament in Great Falls, they earned the title of divisional champions after beating the Rocky Boy Morning Stars, 52-38, in the title game.
Neither the Coyotes or the Morning Stars had hoisted their respective district tournament trophies. But after semifinal wins on Friday, they found themselves squaring off for the Northern C championship. Chester drubbed Geraldine, 47-33, to reach Saturday's championship game and the Morning Stars got by Grass Range 49-43, setting up the championship tilt.
The game in front of a near-capacity crowd at the Four Seasons Arena got off to a solid start for the Morning Stars as they jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead behind consecutive baskets from Shaneen Raining Bird. But the tone of contest would be set early as Rocky Boy quickly found itself in foul trouble midway through the first quarter. Chester shot 15 free throws in the opening period to keep pace with Rocky Boy, 13-11.
Rocky Boy opened the second quarter much like it did the first. Tori Belcourt nailed a 3-pointer and Raining Bird followed that up with a layup to give the Morning Stars an 18-11 advantage. That seven-point lead would be as far ahead as Rocky Boy would get.
Chester closed the first half on an 11-2 run behind the play of Mary DeVries and Keyla Briese. When the run was over, the Coyotes had knotted the game up at 23-23. Chester head coach Dustin Gordon was happy to be in the position that he was in going into intermission.
"I think that if we would have shot the ball better and made our free throws, we would have been in really good shape," Gordon said. "But Rocky Boy came out shooting the ball well, so we were glad that we were still right with them when the half ended."
Gordon also pointed to the foul trouble the Morning Stars found themselves in as a critical key to Chester's eventual domination of the second half.
"We watched some film and saw some of Rocky Boy's defensive tendencies," he said. "We knew that if we got them a little out of position we could maybe get them into some foul trouble, and it worked out for us."
Did it ever work out for Chester. The Coyotes took their first lead of the game at the four-minute mark of the third period on two straight baskets by DeVries. After Erin Broncho tied the game back up at 29-29, the Morning Stars would not score again for nearly seven minutes and the Coyotes took full advantage. Chester closed on a 7-0 run to take a 36-29 lead into the fourth quarter.
Both teams then went nearly four scoreless minutes in the fourth period before Broncho got the Morning Stars out of their funk with a putback. But Rocky Boy could not seize any momentum as once again the fouls came into play. Chester shot 16 free throws in the quarter and that was enough to pull away from the Morning Stars for good.
After the game Rocky Boy head coach Deb LaMere admitted that the fouls were the downfall of her team in the second half.
"Chester shot 44 free throws and that is way too many," LaMere said. "Obviously that hurt us and we had trouble scoring points in the second half and eventually the game just got away from us."
DeVries also hurt the Morning Stars. She poured in a game-high 17 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Shawnee Norick chipped in with 11 points. Broncho led the Morning Stars in the loss with 11 points off of the bench.
While the loss was disappointing for LaMere and her team, they still advanced to the Class C state tournament in Belgrade. It will be the first time in 18 years that the Rocky Boy girls have reached the big dance, and that is something LaMere said her team should be very proud of despite the loss on Saturday night.
"I told the girls not to hang their heads, because we are still going to state," she said. "Everything starts over for us this week and we are very excited about this opportunity."
The Coyotes are back in familiar territory. Chester is a perennial state tournament contender.
"I am just really proud of what these girls did tonight," Gordon said. "They really stayed composed when the game started to get really emotional and intense in the second half. And now they are Northern C champions."
"The girls were pretty disappointed when we lost to Sunburst last week," he added. "But they were the better team that night. Tonight we were the best team here and we're excited about this win."
The Northern C tournament was dominated by Districts 9C and 10C this season. Aside from Chester and Rocky Boy, District 10C champion Sunburst shook off an opening-round loss, as did 9C champion Big Sandy. The two teams battled back through the loser's bracket and met Saturday afternoon with third place on the line. The Refiners were able to come away with a 52-46 win, preventing the Pioneers from challenging Rocky Boy for the right to go to the state tournament.
The Class C state tournament will get under way this Thursday and run through Saturday night. All of the action will take place at the Belgrade Special Events center in Belgrade.
Chester 52 Rocky Boy 38 (1st)
Rocky Boy 13 10 6 9 - 38
Chester 11 12 11 18 - 52
Rocky Boy - Chelsey St. Pierre 1 2-3 4, Shaneen Raining Bird 4 0-0 8, Deena Sunchild 0 0-0 0, Loni Belcourt 2 2-3 6, Tori Belcourt 2 1-2 6, Courtney St. Pierre 0 0-0 0, Frances Eagleman 1 1-2 3, Erin Broncho 5 1-2 11. Totals: 15 7-12.
Chester - Shawnee Norick 2 7-12 11, Amanda Violett 0 2-5 2, Mary DeVries 7 3-4 17, Brianne Wolfe 2 5-8 9, Keyla Briese 3 7-13 13. Totals: 14 24-43.
Total fouls: Rocky Boy 29, Chester 9. Fouled out: C. St. Pierre, Raining Bird, Eagleman. Technical fouls: Raining Bird, T. Belcourt. Rebounds: Rocky Boy 42 (Broncho 16), Chester 40 (DeVries 11, Norick 10).
Sunburst 52 Big Sandy 46 (3rd)
Sunburst 16 10 11 15 - 52
Big Sandy 8 16 14 8 - 46
Sunburst - Rachel Kleinert 6 2-2 15, Kendra Hovland 1 1-4 3, Rachel Schulze 5 0-0 10, Kayla McCoy 0 0-0 0, Cassie Meyers 4 0-0 9, Darcey Johannsen 6 2-5 15. Totals: 22 5-11 52
Big Sandy - Sandy Zeiger 1 0-2 2, Mikki Hammons 0 0-0 0, Kacy Herron 8 6-9 22, Naomi Williams 4 0-1 8, Sarah Yirsa 2 1-2 5, Shalayna Pearson 3 0-0 6, Jessica Amsbaugh 1 0-0 2, Morgan Darlington 0 1-2 1. Totals: 19 8-16.
Total fouls - Sunburst 14, Big Sandy 11. Fouled out - none. 3-point goals - Kleinert, Meyers, Johannsen. Rebounds - Sunburst 31 (Schulze 7), Big Sandy 34 (Williams 10). Assists - Sunburst 11 (Kleinert 6), Big Sandy 11 (Zeiger 4). Turnovers - Sunburst 25, Big Sandy 24.
Big Sandy 52 Grass Range 34 (lo)
Big Sandy 8 14 17 13 - 52
Grass Range 8 4 8 14 - 34
Big Sandy - Sandy Zeiger 4 2-2 10, Kacy Herron 7 1-3 15, Naomi Williams 4 0-0 8, Sarah Yirsa 3 0-0 6, Shaila Cline 1 0-1 2, Shalayna Pearson 4 0-4 8, Jessica Amsbaugh 1 0-0 3. Totals 24 3-10.
Grass Range - Charlee Fleharty 2 1-2 5, Brittany Olson 1 0-4 2, Laramey Pancheri 4 2-2 12, Marisa Griffith 1 0-0 2, Carime Mury 6 0-0 13. Totals 17 3-8 34.
Fouls - Big Sandy 8, Grass Range 14. Fouled out - none. 3-point goals - Amsbaugh, Pancheri, Mury. Rebounds - Big Sandy 38 (Pearson 11), Grass Range 36 (Olson 7).
Rocky Boy 49 Grass Range 43 (sf)
Rocky Boy 8 10 17 14 - 49
Grass Range 11 11 10 11 - 43
Rocky Boy - Chelsey St. Pierre 2 2-2 6, Shaneen Raining Bird 4 6-10 14, Loni Belcourt 4 4-5 15, Tori Belcourt 3 0-0 9, Frances Eagleman 1 1-2 3, Erin Broncho 1 0-1 2. Totals: 15 13-20.
Grass Range - Charlee Fleharty 1 4-6 6, Karin Romanchuk 3 0-0 6, Brittany Olson 1 2-2 4, Laramey Pancheri 4 3-4 12, Marisa Griffith 2 0-0 4, Carime Mury 4 2-2 11. Totals: 15 11-14.
Total fouls: Rocky Boy 13, Grass Range 19. Fouled out: Olson. Three-point goals: L. Belcourt 3, T. Belcourt 3, Pancheri 1, Mury 1. Rebounds: Rocky Boy 45 (Raining Bird 13), Grass Range 28 (Olson 7, Fleharty 6).
Chester 47 Geraldine 33 (sf)
Geraldine 6 8 9 10 - 33
Chester 10 13 11 13 - 47
Geraldine - Marissa Clark 4 4-5 12, Rachel Clark 6 1-1 13, Alicia Burtchett 0 2-2 2, Toni Qunell 0 0-0 0, Courtney Burtchett 0 0-0 0, Beth Scribner 2 0-0 4, Becky Thompson 0 2-2 2, Leslie Engellant 0 0-0 0, Kelsee Clark 0 0-0 0, Marlee Hunter 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 9-10.
Chester - Shawnee Norick 3 3-4 9, Amanda Violett 0 0-0 0, Mary DeVries 6 3-7 15, Brianne Wolfe 2 3-3 7, Keyla Briese 4 2-2 11, Brittney Kolstad 1 1-6 3, Chelsea Stokes 1 0-0 2, Jackie Alisch 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 12-22.
Total fouls: Geraldine 15, Chester 11. Fouled out: None. Three-point goals: Briese 1. Rebounds: Geraldine 31 (M. Clark 8), Chester 35 (Wolfe 10).
