Stars shine again at State B boys tourney

The Rocky Boy boys basketball team has a history of making postseason runs and over the weekend at the Class B state tournament, the Stars nearly brought home another third-place trophy.

After winning on Thursday to stay alive in the tournament against Shelby, Rocky Boy Boy knocked off Poplar 75-69 before falling short of third place with a 53-38 loss at the hands of Big Timber.

But for the second straight year, the Stars earned multiple wins at the state tournament and used a stellar effort to knock off Poplar, the team that defeated Rocky Boy for the Northern B Divisional championship. Rocky Boy had four players that finished in double figures and were led by Wyatt Caplette who finished with 18. Jordan Tyner also added 16 in the win for the Stars, who also got 15 from Frankie Bacon and 13 from Blake Cantrell to stay alive.

With a chance to bring home another trophy Friday night, the Stars were looking good for most of the game as they took a lead into halftime. However, when the fourth quarter started, the Rocky Boy lead was down to two points and over the final eight minutes, Bigfork outscored the Stars 22-5 to take home the consolation championship. Olin Arkinson led the way for Rocky Boy with 10 points including two 3-pointers.

On the girls side of things, Harlem was trying to rebound Friday morning from a difficult loss Thursday to Forsyth in the quarterfinals, unfortunately, the Wildcats ran into second-ranked Three Forks, which cruised to a 61-40 victory. Kyle Olson scored 33 points in the win for Three Forks, which ended Harlem's first trip to the state tournament. Skylee Dirden had 13 points in the loss and L'Tia Lawrence had nine.

"I'm just very proud of these young ladies," Harlem head coach Marlin Lawrence told 406 sports after the game. "A very special group of girls. They worked their butts off every year. They played for each other."

Rocky Boy Boy 75, Polar 69, LO

Rocky Boy 14 15 26 20 – 75

Poplar 20 10 11 28 – 69

Rocky Boy – Wyatt Caplette 18, Jordan Tyner 16, Frankie Bacon 15, Blake Cantrell 13, Mac Sutherland 9, Ben Crebs 2, Olin Arkinson 2.

Poplar – Wynn Main 19, Kenny Smoker 16, Chris Colgan 11, Darryl Joe 8, Wilfred Lambert 6, Dusette Gourneau 3, Andrew Azure-Youpee 3, Jay Ferheurm 3.

Big Timber 53, Rocky Boy 38, 3rd

Rocky Boy 11 9 13 5 – 38

Big Timber 12 6 13 22 – 53

Rocky Boy – Joe Demontiney 1, Mackaveli Sutherland 3, Frankie Bacon 5, Wyatt Caplette 4, Olin Arkinson 10, Blake Cantrell 3, Jordon Tyner 6, Ben Crebs 6.

Big Timber – Dawson La Verell 2, Casey Gunlikson 5, Blake Finn 12, Kell Schwers 26, Jacob Roberts 2, Cody Stene 2, Ethan Bullock 4.

Three Forks 61, Harlem 40, LO

Three Forks 15 20 16 10 – 61

Harlem 11 7 13 9 – 40

Three Forks– Lily Jones 3, Erin Welter 5, Kendall Lynn 11, Makenzie Feddes 2, Paeton Ohs 5, Kyle Olson 33, Breanna Bloch 2.

Harlem – Kristyn Kittson 2, Skylee Dirden 13, L'Tia Lawrence 9, Taya Trotter 12, Taeshon Scheaffer 2, Shontelle Talksdifferent 2.