Beeters roll, Knights tumble in Northern C openers

GREAT FALLS — If the Chinook Sugarbeeters were looking past the Denton-Geyser-Stanford Bearcats, and ahead to a possible semifinal matchup with the top-ranked and mighty Belt Huskies, you wouldn’t have known it by the way the Beeters played in the first half of their opening game of the Northern C girls divisional tournament.

The 9C champion Beeters raced out to a 17-point lead in the first half of their game with D-G-S Thursday night at the Four Seasons Arena. And while they were indeed excited about the chance to play the Huskies, which they’ll get tonight, the Beeters took care of business, putting away the 7C Bearcats 46-36.

“More than anything, winning this game is a relief,” Chinook head coach Charlie Robinson said. “We’ve known the brackets well ahead of time. We knew last year, through the summer and the fall, and through last week that if we won tonight, we’d get to play Belt. And now that moment has arrived.

“Our kids came into this game confident we would play well and confident we could win. But again, it’s a relief to get the win,” he added.

Robinson was also relieved to see his team get off to such a good start Thursday night.

Hannah Weber opened the first-round battle with a 3-pointer, then hit another two minutes later. Add in two fastbreak layups by Emily Dennis and Chinook got off to a 15-9 lead.

The Beeters then kicked things into high gear in the second quarter. Weber knocked in another triple, while Katelyn Neibauer and Talya Johnson added buckets in what became a 13-0 Beeter run. Chinook’s defense also held the Bearcats to just two points in the second stanza and, as a result, they led 28-11 at the break.

D-G-S played better in the second half, but any time the Bearcats threatened, Chinook had answers. Trailing 36-19 heading into the final quarter, D-G-S finally made a run of its own and twice cut the Chinook lead to 10 with under four minutes to go. But big baskets from Tavin Schneider down the stretch helped the Beeters seal the victory and move on.

“The kids played really good at the start,” Robinson said. “We had a couple of lulls, and in a game like this, where we get up big and are probably looking ahead to tomorrow night, it’s hard to turn it back on. But we played well again down the stretch, we got a nice lift from (Talya) Johnson and (Tavin) Schneider down the stretch, and, overall, the kids did a good job of coming out and making sure they got the victory.”

Thursday night’s win pushed Chinook to 20-1 on the season. Weber led the way with 11 points and three treys, and was proud of how her team played together. But she, too, is looking forward to seeing how her Beeters do against the Huskies (20-2) tonight.

“It feels good to have this game be a good, solid game,” Weber exclaimed. “We played really well together tonight and that gives us confidence going into playing a tough team in Belt tomorrow night.”

While Weber sparked the Beeters with her outside shooting, Schneider added 10 points off the bench and Katelyn Neibauer contributed to a balanced Chinook attack with nine points. Dennis and Makhayla Farmer each scored six. The Beeters shot a stellar 50 percent from the field and only committed nine turnovers. Chinook limited the Bearcats to just 30 percent shooting and one 3-pointer, while the Beeters forced 10 D-G-S turnovers.

But as well as Chinook played against D-G-S, the talk after the game turned right to the Belt game. The Huskies dismantled Dutton-Brady Thursday afternoon and are the two-time defending Northern C champions, not to mention the defending Class C state champions. Belt, coached by former Chester standout Jeff Graham, lost just twice this season, but the Huskies losses came at the hands of the amazing Fairfield Eagles, and Belt hasn’t lost a game to a Class C opponent in two-plus seasons.”

“We get our wish now,” Robinson said. “They’re (Huskies) a great team. They are well-coached, they have good players and they have won a lot of games recently. But we’re happy to get a victory tonight and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

“It’s exciting knowing we’re going into a tough game with confidence,” Weber added. “We played solid tonight and we’re confident going into the game with Belt.”

Tonight’s semifinal game between the Sugarbeeters and Huskies will tip off at 5:30 at the Four Seasons Arena. The first semifinal, between Winnett-Grass Range and Simms/Augusta will tip off at 4. The Northern C championship game is set for 8:30 Saturday night.

Winnett-Grass Range 45,

North Star 19

The North Star Knights got a rude wake up on the first morning of the Northern C girls basketball tournament. Thursday at the Four Seasons Arena, the Knights were beaten handily by perennial Northern C contender Winnett-Grass Range. The 7C champion Rams dispatched the Knights 43-19.

The Knights fell behind big in the second quarter and never recovered. The loss drops North Star (14-7) into a loser-out game against Fort Benton this morning.

“Tough to put a finger on just one thing,” North Star head coach Griff Bye said. “It’s just one of those games. We got off to a bad start, and we just could never get going offensively. We turned it over too much in the first half, and we just couldn’t make shots. And they (Rams) played well. They were a little more physical than I thought they would be. And they slowed us down. We played a lot slower than we wanted to, and we just never got the confidence to speed it up.”

The Knights did get off to a rough start and wound up shooting a measly 28 percent from the field. Still, they trailed the Rams just 9-5 after the first period. From there, however, the Rams heated up and the Knights went colder than the old ice that used to sit inside the Four Seasons Arena.

North Star managed just one Alyssa Borlaug hoop in the second stanza, but the Knights still trailed just 19-9 at intermission. Mackenzie Hansen hit a 3-pointer to start the second half, but it just didn’t spark the Knights. After Hansen’s triple went down, the Knights would go the next 10 minutes without a bucket, while the Rams ripped off a 13-0 run to finish the third quarter, including four straight scores by Holly Matovich. At the end of three periods, the Knights were down 38-15, and that was that.

“We scored the first points of the game,” Bye said. “But after that, we just couldn’t score. We have a pretty experienced team, these kids were here last year, but I thought we had some nerves this morning, and we just never got anything going.”

Hansen was the high scorer for the Knights with just seven points. Borlaug added five, while Pari Iverson scored 12 for the Rams (20-2), who will face Simms in the semifinals tonight. The Rams also out-rebounded the Knights 30-16 and forced them into an uncharacteristic 28 turnovers.

But as rough as Thursday morning was for the Knights, they know they can bounce back. Last season, North Star reeled off three straight wins in the Northern C after losing in the opening round, and they’ll look to start a similar run this morning.

“We have nothing to lose,” Bye noted. “We’ve been here before. I like our matchups from here on out, and hopefully we come out play more relaxed tomorrow.”

Winnett-Grass Range 45, North Star 19

North Star 5 4 6 4 – 19

W-G-R 11 8 19 7 – 45

North Star – Alyssa Borlaug 5, Bettie Carlon 3, Delainey Spicher 2, Kiera Miller 1, Kristyn Lavery 1, Mackenzie Hansen 7. Totals 5-18 6-25 19.

W-G-R – Angie Murnion 5, Brittany Murnion 5, Carissa Workan 4, Heather Matovich 5, Holly Matovich 8, Jamie Stahl 1, Pari Iverson 12, Shelby Browning 2, Tory Browning 2, Tylee Browning 2. Totals: 16-33 7-14 45.

3-pointers Hansen, B. Murnion, H. Matovich. Fouls: W-G-R 10, North Star 8.

Chinook 46, D-G-S 36

Chinook 15 13 10 8 – 46

DGS 9 2 12 13 – 36

Chinook – Emily Dennis 6, Hannah Weber 11, Katelyn Neibauer 9, Makhayla Farmer 6, Talya Johnson 4, Tavin Schneider 10. Totals: 19 4-6.

DGS – Brenna Hulett 6, Donna Bracha 2, Kendra Smith 16, Landra Lucas 6. Valerie Johnosn 6. Totals: 14 6-14.

3-pointers: Weber 3, Neibauer, Smith 2. Fouls: Chinook 12, DGS 9. Fouled out: none.