Sugarbeeters storm through 9C again

Over the past two seasons, the Chinook Sugarbeeters have run roughshod through the District 9C and Saturday night, inside the HHS gymnasium, the Sugarbeeters completed another dominant season in the district with a 68-40 win over Fort Benton in the 9C championship game.

The win improved Chinook's record on the season to 21-0 and also gave Chinook its 36th consecutive win over 9C opponents, a streak that dates all the way back to the 2017 9C tournament. Next up for the Beeters will be Great Falls and the Northern C Divisional.

"It feels pretty good," Isaac Bell said. "We didn't really know we won that many games in a row until a couple of weeks ago. It's not something we were shooting for but it's a great accomplishment to have."

Bell certainly played a big part in the Beeters 28-point win thanks to 14 points in the first half as Chinook built a 33-23 advantage. Six of Bell's 14 in the first half came on a pair of 3-pointers and the first put Chinook in front for the first time, as Chinook fell behind 10-5. Bell's triple put them in front 12-10 and after Ethan Bell beat the buzzer to close the first quarter, it was 14-10 Beeters.

In the second quarter, Chinook's run would continue and at one point, the Beeters scored 15 straight points. By the time Bell's second 3-pointer hit the bottom of the net it was 29-16 Chinook. A slight run by Fort Benton capped by a Hayden Diekhans trey right before the second-quarter buzzer got the Longhorns within 10 at the half, 33-23 but they wouldn't get closer.

In the second half, Chinook's size and strength took over. The Beeters pounded the ball inside to senior Cord Schneider, who finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Fellow senior Brendan Edwards added 11 points but the breakout performance was from Hunter Neibauer, who made 7-of-8 shot attempts on his way to a game-high 16 points.

While Fort Benton never challenged the Beeters in the second half, the Longhorns grabbed an early lead and were competitive throughout the first half thanks to Damon Bird, who scored 12 in the first 16 minutes before finishing the game with a total of 15. Hayden Diekhans added 14 but noticeably absent was Garrett Diekhans, who went just 2-of-11 from the field and scored four points.

"I can't give out any secret information on that," Chinook head coach Mike Seymour said of how his team slowed down Diekhans. "That's two Saturday nights in a row that we did that against a team that has two prolific scorers and it wasn't just one guy. I couldn't be more proud of my team right now."

For the game, Fort Benton shot just 36 percent from the field compared to a 52-percent effort by the Beeters. Chinook also forced 17 turnovers, while only committing nine. Both teams will advance to the Northern C Divisional next week in Great Falls and joining them will be the Hays-Lodge Pole Thunderbirds who held off a valiant effort by the North Star Knights to win the consolation game 68-63 and take third.

After making its first trip to divisionals in about a decade last season, North Star nearly made it back after falling just short of an upset against HLP. The T-Birds led by double digits early in the third quarter, but the Knights slowly crept back into the game and got within one after a 3-point play by Caden Rettig. At that point, it was 56-55 T-Birds with four minutes and change left in the game.

Yet, Kyle Young Jr. knocked down a big 3-pointer pushing the lead back to four and the T-Birds were able to hit some free throws late to wrap up third and a spot at the Northern C.

For more coverage of the 9C tournament, see Monday's edition of the Havre Daily News.