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9C Boys: Seven teams try to dethrone the Bears

New-look boys tourney begins Thursday and runs through Saturday night at the HHS gymnasium

One of the great basketball traditions along the Hi-Line is the District 9C tournament, which is annually held in Havre and played inside the HHS gymnasium. This year, the tradition lives on and so does the excellence of the Box Elder Bears, the defending Class C state champions, who come into the 9C as the prohibitive favorite to win the boys bracket.

The Bears, who went undefeated en route to the state title a year ago and were 17-1 this season, will begin their title defense Thursday in the opening round of the 9C tournament, where they will face eighth-seeded Turner. Box Elder is the top overall seed after finishing the year with a 14-0 record in district play. The Bears and Tornadoes (4-14, 0-14) will kick off the boys tournament Thursday at 11:00.

“The 9C is going to be tough, there are some tough teams,” Box Elder head coach Jeremy Macdonald said. “The boys are motivated. We look up at that (state title) banner and start thinking that we want to add another. So it’s a big motivating factor. Our guys have great attitudes and work hard. So that makes coaching them lots of fun.”

Box Elder is the overwhelming favorite to once again capture the 9C title because of a talented roster that features Brandon The Boy, Jerrod Four Colors, Clayton Morsette Jr. and Jake Jones, among others. Turner will counter with Lucas Reed, Brett Van Valkenburg and Tristian Billmayer.

The winner of Box Elder and Turner game will move on to face the victor of Fort Benton-Geraldine and Chester/J-I as the two newcomers to the 9C tournament face off in their opening game.

“I think playing in the 10C prepared us well for the 9C,” C/J-I head coach Spencer Satori said. “It’s Northern C basketball and that means every game is going to be tough. We just have to focus on our next opponent. That’s all we can focus on.”

The Hawks had a solid first season in the 9C with an overall record of 12-6 and a 9-5 mark in district play, which was good enough for fourth. Led by Justin May, Brandon Richter and Corey Richter C/J-I will take on FB-G (5-13, 5-9) in the opening round of the tournament, which is led by Ben Hulme, Toren Adreason and Sean Bronec. Fifth-seeded FB-G and C/J-I are scheduled to gets things started at 12:30 Thursday. Another thing that is different this year in the 9C besides the addition of C/J-I and FB-G is that that three teams will advance to the Northern C divisional after just two qualified to move on last season.

While Box Elder was one of the two teams to advance to divisionals last season, Chinook was the other. And this season, the Sugarbeeters, who lost in the 9C championship game to Box Elder a year ago, have their sights set on another trip to Great Falls for the Northern C divisional.

Chinook, which is led by senior Lane Seymour, had a solid campaign and finished second in the district with a record of 11-3. Chinook was 13-5 overall. In addition to Seymour, the Beeters get important contributions from Ian McIntosh, Cody McCracken, Zach Schelin and Wade Schneider.

The second-seeded Beeters will take on seventh-seeded Big Sandy in the opening round Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The Pioneers struggled this year but showed marked improvement over the 2013-14 team, as Big Sandy finished 3-11 in the 9C and 4-14 overall.

The Pioneers must play their absolute best to pull the upset and will need herculean efforts from standouts Kyle Strutz and Geno Menard in order to knock off a Chinook team that beat Big Sandy twice during the regular season.

While every team has their eye on making divisionals, there may be no team that wants to get there as bad as the Hays-Lodge Pole Thunderbirds. The T-Birds were agonizingly close last year, and despite finishing third did not advance because there were only two spots available.

The T-Birds, coached by Charlie Ereaux, who led the program to its last state title in 2007, come in as one of the better teams in the district after going 13-5 overall and 11-3 in league play.

HLP is an experienced squad that is led by Sterling White Cow as well as Tyson Shambo. Frank Runs Above and Tough Snow are also key contributors. The T-Birds will kick off their tournament Thursday at 4 p.m., when they are set to go head-to-head with North Star.

The Knights, who went 4-10 in the 9C and 5-11 overall, will have a difficult time knocking off the third-seeded T-Birds, who they lost to twice during regular season competition. North Star has been plagued by injury but still boasts some talent with players such as Payton Peterson. Devon Miller and Matthew Helmbrect.

The winners of the four opening round games will advance to the semifinals Friday night, with the 9C consolation championship game to follow Saturday night in Havre.

 

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