Bears, T-Birds Win to Set up Showdown in 9C Boys Final

Friday night at the District 9C tournament is always exciting but this year, the tournament outdid itself as both semifinals games in the boys bracket were entertaining and exhilarating from start to finish.

In the first game of the night, the defending Class C state champion Box Elder Bears, who are also the two-time defending 9C tournament champions, qualified for their third straight trip to the 9C finals with a hard-earned 78-69 win over Chester/J-I.

Then, in the second semifinal of the night, the Hays-Lodge Pole Thunderbirds exacted some revenge on the Chinook Sugarbeeters for a loss in the semifinals a year ago by outlasting them, 56-53 in overtime. Both games were held inside the HHS gymnasium.

"We are happy to be going back to divisionals but we will worry about that next week," Box Elder head coach Jeremy Macdonald said. "The other day, we were looking at our trophy case and our school has not won three straight district championships since the early 1960s and we want to make a little bit of history tomorrow night."

In the first half of the Box Elder-Chester/J-I game, it looked like the Hawks would be the ones making history. In the first two quarters of the game, the Hawks were a jaw-dropping 10 of 11 on 3-point attempts that included a six-for-six start from beyond the arc for Cory Richter.

Thanks to their hot shooting, the Hawks built a 36-24 lead in the second quarter over the Bears and despite a slight rally by Box Elder in the second, C/J-I took a 48-40 lead into intermission.

Yet, in the third quarter, Box Elder got back to playing championship basketball. Jerrod Four Colors was a big catalyst in the first eight minutes of the second half for the Bears, scoring eight points and sparking a 21-8 quarter in favor of Box Elder to give the Bears a 61-56 lead going into the fourth.

The Hawks hung tough and following a triple by Troy Harmon, the Bears' lead was down to 67-63 with 4:38 left in the game. However, Box Elder answered. This time, the response came from Clayton Morsette Jr., who nailed a big 2-pointer, then back-to-back scores from Brandon The Boy and Four Colors put the Bears up 73-65. And at that point, C/J-I had lost the magic touch and went on to fall by nine.

"I think our depth kind of wore them down over the game," Macdonald said. "They came out fired up and were shooting really well. But we just kept our heads and were patient. Then we started getting some stops and their shots started coming up short."

Four Colors was huge in the win for the Bears, scoring a team-high 21 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Morsette Jr., had 14 points and 14 boards, while The Boy also scored 14. Justin May led the way for C/J-I with 22. Richer added 21, all of which came in the first half.

The second semifinal was even more dramatic in the end but early on things looked bleak for HLP as Chinook jumped out to a 13-2 lead with 2:43 left in the first quarter. Yet, the T-Birds kept their composure and by the end of the opening stanza, they trailed just 15-9.

In the second, it was the T-Birds turn to get hot and following a trey by Tyson Shambo and a 2-pointer from Sterling White Cow HLP led 22-17 after a 13-2 run. Lance Strike scored six straight points late in the second to help HLP get up by as many as seven but a pair of triples from Zack Schellin helped Chinook stay within striking distance at 32-28 going into the intermission.

The T-Birds extended their lead to 43-35 at the end of the third but had difficulty scoring in the fourth to put the game away. In fact, the T-Birds scored just four points in the final quarter and thanks to a trey by Ian McIntosh the Beeters got within two at 45-43. Then, with less than a minute to play and Chinook still behind 47-45, Travis Hamilton got a steal and scored to tie the game at 47-47.

Eventually, the two teams made their way into overtime, where Shambo, who missed a free throw at the end of regulation that could have won the game, took over. He hit two free throws and then a layup to put HLP up 51-48, then scored twice more after Chinook baskets to keep the HLP lead at three 55-52 with 1:15 left in overtime. In all, he scored eight of the T-Birds nine points in the extra session.

In the last minute, Chinook tried desperately to get the game-tying three but after a final shot by Schellin missed the front of the rim with seconds to go, the Beeters comeback attempt was over and the T-Birds survived for a three-point win.

"It's a big relief to get back into divisionals," HLP head coach Charlie Ereaux said. "We had a bad taste in our mouths after missing it last year. These guys put a lot of work in, including a lot of time in the offseason to make sure it wouldn't happen again and it was all worth it."

The T-Birds will now play Box Elder on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. in the boys championship of the 9C tournament. Chinook will turn around and play Fort Benton-Geraldine in the consolation bracket, while C/J-I will play North Star. Both of those games will take place Saturday morning.