Northern B field at deep as ever

After a week off from the craziness of postseason basketball, the boys basketball teams of the Northern B are back at it this week, as eight teams will compete in the divisional tournament, with two earning the right to advance to next week's Class B state tournament in Great Falls.

The two teams from along the Hi-Line that will be competing in the Northern B divisional this week in Shelby, beginning Thursday are the Rocky Boy Stars and the Harlem Wildcats. Rocky Boy finished fourth in the District 1B tournament, while Harlem essentially tied for third because the 2B does not play a consolation game.

The tournament will get started in the Shelby High School gymnasium Thursday and will run through Saturday and possibly Monday if there is a challenge game. The Stars (3-19) had to forfeit nine wins earlier in the season due to the use of in ineligible player, so while their record isn't the greatest, looks can be deceiving.

Rocky Boy boasts a number of talented players such as Junior Day Child, Cecil LaFromboise, Bubby Gopher and Skylar Parisian that helped the Stars be a solid team throughout the regular season and play well enough to advance to divisionals. Yet, the Stars will find out soon enough whether they are a true contender in the Northern B as they take on arguably the top team at the divisional, the Glasgow Scotties (19-1) in the opening round Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

The Scotties, who went to state last season before falling to Malta in loser-out action Saturday morning, have a wealth of talent back from last season's run headlined by All-State performer Chase Fossum. Other key players for Glasgow are Keil Krumwiede, who was also named All State last season, as well as Jake Page, Jason Thibault, Jake Kolstad, Gage Legare, Ethan Etchart and Zach Miller. In addition to making the state tournament a year ago, Glasgow also captured the Northern B title and will be looking to win it for the second consecutive year.

If the Stars are able to pull the upset on the heavily-favored Scotties, they would then move on to take on the winner of Fairfield and Harlem. The Wildcats and Eagles are set to square off against each other in first round action Thursday at 8 p.m.

The Wildcats (10-11) are coming off a solid performance in the District 2B, where they defeated Plentywood in the first round, then defeated Wolf Point in the consolation round, sandwiched between a tough four-point loss to Malta. Harlem will be led by Dutch Helgeson and Tristian Gone and comes into the tournament as a bit of an underdog but has a chance to beat a Fairfield team that has been up and down all season long.

The Eagles (9-11) are far from a dominant team and should get a challenge from the Wildcats. Yet, one thing Fairfield has going for it is experience with Dalton Palmer, Trevor Schenk, Tanner Mayer and Joel Beck all back after starting a season ago.

On the other side of the bracket, the tournament will begin with a matchup between Choteau, the No. 1 team from the 1B against Plentywood, the fourth-place team from the 2B at 12:30 p.m. Thursday. The winner of that game will take on either third-seeded Shelby of the 1B or second-seeded Malta of the 2B. Those two teams will go head-to-head at 2 p.m.

All games will be played inside the Shelby High School gymnasium and the top two teams from the Northern B will advance to the 2015 Class B state tournament, which begins March 12 in Great Falls and will be played at the Four Seasons Arena.