Daniel Horton Havre Daily News gferguson@havredailynews.com
It was a relatively slow weekend across the Hi-Line in terms of boys prep basketball because severe winter storm forced the postponement of most of Friday's action and some of Saturday's. This weekend was supposed to makr the return of high school basketball from winter break, and some teams did get games in on the Hi-Line. The undefeated Rocky Boy Stars were hosting the 2-1 Box Elder Bears and the Hays-Lodge Pole Thunderbirds were on the road to take on the Winifred Red Raiders Saturday. In the weekend’s first matchup, the Stars were able to maintain their undefeated status with a blowout 69-30 win over the Bears. The Stars jumped all over the Bears early and never looked back, putting up 22 points in the first quarter and holding them to seven with a good defensive stand. And in an even more impressive effort, the Stars scored 27 more points in the second quarter. And on the defensive side, held the Bears to only six points as the Stars took a comfortable 49-13 lead heading into the locker room at the half that they wouldn’t give up. The Bears had their most productive quarter in the third, where they found a way to put 10 points on the scoreboard. Leading the Bears in scoring was Daniel Nault with nine, and Jared Russette and Cody Nault who both scored six points. Eric Schildt led the Star’s scoring with 13 points, while Mike Sangrey Jr. And Kirby Lefromboise added 10 points each. With the Stars win, they moved to 4-0, and with the loss, the Bears dropped to 2-2. The Hays-Lodge Pole Thunderbirds also found themselves on the losing end on Saturday. The Red Raiders gave the visiting Thunderbirds a rough return from the break by defeating them 67-41. And the slow start by the Thunderbirds proved to be too much for them to overcome. In the first quarter they were only able to put up five points to the Red Raiders 17. And while in the second quarter the Thunderbirds were able to put up 18 points, they still found themselves trailing 36-23 after the first half. The Thunderbirds needed a strong second half on the offensive and defensive side of the ball if they were going to switch the momentum. But even with the overall 24 points by Cole McCabe and the eight points by Ty Racine, the T-Birds were outscored 31-18 in the second half. HLP's struggles continued on Monday night as the T-Birds dropped a 9C contest to Box Elder 81-70 in Box Elder. Box Elder raced out to a 52-32 halftime lead and got a team-high 33 points from Lathon Windy Boy as well as 25 from Cody Nault in the victory. Cole McCabe was spectacular for HLP scoring 38 points, but it wasn't enough to get the win. Monday night also saw Harlem travel to Malta and earn a hard-fought 46-43 District 2B victory. The game was close throughout, but Harlem's defense porved to be the difference in the three-point victory. Isaiah Martin led all scorers with 13 points, and the Wildcats also got 12 from Elias Goes Ahead and 11 from Jake Rider.
