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Bears finish third at Northern C

9C teams play well at the Northern C, but Belt, Highwood keep Box Elder from defending its state title

GREAT FALLS — The Box Elder Bears are definitely one of the best teams in Class C boys basketball. But despite four straight wins to close out the Northern C tournament, the Bears will not be going to Billings to defend their state title.

After an opening-round loss to Highwood, the Bears rallied to get third place but were unable to challenge after Highwood lost to Belt in the championship game Saturday night to finish second. Just before the championship game at the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls Saturday, Box Elder knocked off Denton-Geyser-Stanford 49-36 in the consolation game to ensure themselves of bringing home some hardware. The Bears were led with 17 points from Jerrod Four Colors and 10 from Jake Jones in the win.

Even though the Bears did not qualify for state, no one who saw the Bears play Saturday could question whether they are good enough to get there, particularly after their 90-51 victory over rival Hays-Lodge Pole in loser-out action Saturday morning.

The Bears, who beat the Thunderbirds by nine in the 9C championship, demolished them this time around from start to finish. Jones was the high scorer for the Bears with 20, while both Four Colors and Tristian Bernard had 13, Clayton Morsette Jr. had 11.

Box Elder was so dominant in the game that it held a 24-3 advantage at the end of the first quarter, and after an incredible 38-point third quarter, the Bears led 62-28. Sterling White Cow was the lone T-Bird to get double digits in scoring with 10.

“It’s too bad that it took until Saturday to finally start playing Box Elder Bears basketball,” Box Elder head coach Jeremy MacDonald said. “These guys love playing basketball, you can see that. They spend time working on it in the offseason and they know this is a privilege and an opportunity. And they made the best of, in our case, a tough situation.”

Another team representing the 9C, the Chinook Sugarbeeters also had hopes Saturday of making the state tournament but had them dashed by DGS, which knocked of the Beeters 70-47 and eliminated them from the tournament. Cody McCracken had 17 points in his final game for Chinook, while fellow senior Lane Seymour closed his career with 14 points.

Chinook advanced to Saturday at the Northern C thanks to a stellar performance by Seymour, who poured in 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead the Beeters to a 74-71 win over Sunburst in loser-out action Friday. Ian McIntosh also added 12 points in the win. Zack Schellin had 11.

Box Elder also took part in loser-out action Friday morning when they took on Great Falls Central. And in another impressive performance, the Bears handed the Mustangs a commanding 73-54 defeat. Four Colors had his best game of the tournament with 27 points. Jones pitched in with 16 points and Pernell Morsette added eight.

Rounding out the action Friday was HLP, which took on Belt in the semifinals after the T-Birds beat Sunburst in the quarterfinals Thursday. However, like the Box Elder game, the T-Birds got overwhelmed early and trailed 23-9 at the end of the first quarter. It was 42-23 in favor of Belt at halftime and 54-32 going into the fourth quarter.

Tyson Shambo had 12 points in the loss, Frank Runs Above matched him and Sterling White Cow had 10.

Friday

Chinook 74, Sunburst 71 (lo)

Sunburst 18 17 24 12 - 71

Chinook 16 21 18 18 - 74

Sunburst - Austin Kimmet 6, Logan Symmes 23, Tim Jarvis 2, Tyler Tharp 13, Jackson Nagy 16, Treyton Pickering 11. Totals: 28 6-16.

Chinook - Lane Seymour 35, Ian McIntosh 12, Cody McCracken 7, Zack Schellin 11, Travis Hamilton 5, Wade Schneider 4. Totals: 27 17-27.

3-pointers - Simmes 5, Tharp. Nagy 3, McIntosh, Schellin, Hamilton. Total fouls - Sunburst 19, Chinook 16. Fouled out - Kimmet, Hamilton.

Box Elder 73, Great Falls Central 54 (lo)

Box Elder 11 21 20 21 - 73

Central 8 17 13 16 - 54

Box Elder - Brandon The Boy 3, Bodis Duran 5, Tristan Bernard 2, Clayton Morsette Jr. 8, Jake Jones 15, Jerrod Four Colors 27, Talon Morsette 3, Quinn Baker 2, Pernell Morsette 8. Totals: 30 8-19.

Great Falls Central - Colton Schraner 4, Nolan Donisthorpe 3, CJ Lewis 9, Grant Davison 11, Luke Prosser 16, Reid Nelson 11. Totals: 21 9-15.

3-pointers - Duran, Four Colors 3, T. Morsette, Donisthorpe, Davison 2. Total fouls - Box Elder 15, Central 15. Technical foul - C. Morsette Jr.

Belt 64, Hays-Lodge Pole 47 (sf)

Belt 23 19 12 10 - 64

HLP 9 14 9 15 - 47

Belt - Tristan Cummings 1, Harry Green 7, Keagan Stroop 1, Koltin Haugrose 22, Parker McCafferty 17, Jaren Maki 5, Matt Metrione 4, Paxton Maki 3, Dusty Potter 4. Totals 22 11-16.

HLP - Jace Shambo 2, Tyson Shambo 17, Lance Strike 2, Sterling White Cow 10, Frank Runs Above 12, Darnell Parisian 4. Totals: 21 0-3.

3-pointers - Green, Haugrose 4, McCafferty 3, J. Maki, T. Shambo 5. Total fouls - Belt 6, H-LP 18.

Box Elder 90, Hays-Lodge Pole 51 (lo)

Hays-Lodgepole 5 23 14 9 - 51

Box Elder 24 38 16 12 - 90

HLP – Jasper Lewis 5, Jace Shambo 6, Elijah Blackcrow 3, Tyson Shambo 6, Damon Castillo 2, Lance Strike 6, Sterling White Cow 10, Frank Runs Above 5, Darnell Parisian 2, Tough Snow 2, Colton Serk 4. Totals: 21 5-9.

Box Elder – Brandon The Boy 9, Bodis Duran 5, Tristan Bernard 13, Clayton Morsette Jr. 11, Jake Jones 20, Jerrod Four Colors 13, Quinn Baker 2, Trey Henderson 3, Pernell Morsette 6, Shane Ketcham 6, Jacob Bradley 2. Totals: 32 13-22.

3-point goals – Blackcrow 1, T. Shambo 1, White Cow 1, Runs Above 1, The Boy 3, Bernard 1, C. Morsette Jr. 2, Jones 4, Henderson 1, P. Morsette 1, Ketcham 1. Total fouls -- Hays-Lodgepole 15, Box Elder 13. Fouled out – None.

DGS 70, Chinook 47 (lo)

Chinook 7 16 12 12 - 47

DGS 19 14 15 22 - 70

Chinook – Lane Seymour 14, Ian McIntosh 5, Cody McCraken 17, Zack Schellin 8, Wade Schneider 3. Totals: 13 16-21.

DGS – Bart Vaskey 5, Connor Bokma 10, Rhett Woodhall 4, Kade Woodhall 5, Austin Morris 12, Kendall Carpenter 8, Kash Perry 24, Tom Grubb 2. Totals: 26 17-18.

3-point goals – Seymour 1, McCraken 2, Schellin 2, Vaskey 1.

Box Elder 49, DGS 36 (3rd)

DGS 8 4 15 9 - 36

Box Elder 15 4 9 22 - 49

DGS – Bart Vaskey 1, Connor Bokma 2, Kade Woodhall 7, Austin Morris 4, Kendall Carpenter

5, Kash Perry 15, Tom Grubb 2. Totals: 12 10-14.

Box Elder – Brandon The Boy 4, Tristan Bernard 4, Clayton Morsette Jr. 6, Jake Jones 10, Jerrod Four Colors 17, Quinn Baker 2, Pernell Morsette 2, Shane Ketcham 2, Talon Morsette 2. Totals: 15 17-26.

3-point goals – Woodhall 1, Carpenter 1, Four Colors 2. Total fouls – DGS 14, Box Elder 15. Fouled out – Carpenter.

 

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