Make it a triple: Longhorns 3-peat

Fort Benton and winning seem to go hand-in-hand inside the Havre High Gymnasium, where the top-seeded Longhorns were looking for a District 9C 3-peat title Saturday night against the No. 3 Turner Tornadoes, who were making magic of their own.

In the end, Fort Benton weathered the storm to beat the Tornadoes 58-41 in the 9C girls championship game, and to maintain their undefeated record in both the regular season and at the district tournament.

Longhorn's head coach Cassie Pimperton was proud of her team and the work they put forward on the court to earn their third consecutive title in the 9C, already their fourth since they joined the 9C not long ago.

"I'm proud of these girls," Pimperton said. "It's a great group of kids. They work hard all year and they deserve it. Turner is a great basketball team, too. It was a good basketball game."

Fort Benton started the game off right by going on a unanswered 8-0 run, with four different Longhorns making a basket. Shyan Krass and Sarah Billmayer answered with points of their own, but it was Aspen Giese' three 3-pointers that put Fort Benton in the lead 18-10 after the first quarter.

After the hot start, Giese and McKenna Hanford combined for a 7-0 run to put the Longhorns up 25-10 from the beginning to the middle of the second stanza, while Billmayer and Dakota Krass tried to keep the Tornadoes, who were playing in their first 9C chipper in more than two decades, close.

But Fort Benton kept up the pace and stayed on top 30-18 at halftime.

In the second half, MeKenzie Clark kept the pace up for the Longhorns, with Billmayer and Shyan Krass fighting back with multiple buckets, but Hanford and Clark just trucked ahead to give Fort Benton a big 51-28 lead after three.

Clark was a big factor in the big game and even if she did not put up a lot of points, her tenacity and leadership played a role in helping her team.

"It feels really good," Clark said. "It was a hard-fought battle, and we've always wanted to finish it at districts. It was a good thing for us to have."

Clark then went on to add more points to start the fourth quarter for the Longhorns, which followed with back-and-forth play between the two teams. Shyan Krass and Brooke Reed ended the game on a 8-0 run, but Fort Benton was ahead enough to deny a comeback.

Giese dropped 26 points to lead the Longhorns alongside six treys, followed by Hanford with nine points, while Shyan Krass put up 14 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Tornadoes, with Billmayer adding 13 of her own and four assists on the night

Hanford was happy to see the team do so well in the championship once again and looks forward to the future.

"It's pretty cool," Hanford said. "It just feels really good to put all this time in and seeing it pay off."

Now, Fort Benton (21-0), as the top-seed from the 9C, and Turner, as the second seed, will take a trip to the Northern C Divisionals next week at the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls to try and punch a ticket to the Class C State Tournament.

They own the HHS gym

Fort Benton 58, Turner 41 (1st)

Fort Benton 18 12 21 7 – 58

Turner 10 8 10 13 – 41

Fort Benton – Cassie Nack 2, MeKenzie Clark 6, Ashlee Wang 4, Aspen Giese 26, Maci Molinario 4, Megan Clark 4, Emerson Giese 3, McKenna Hanford 9. Totals: 19-61 12-17 58.

Turner – Dakota Krass 6, Sarah Billmayer 13, Brandy Calvert 2, Laci Maloney 2, Brooke Reed 4, Shyan Krass 14. Totals: 14-34 11-12 41.

3-Pointers: Aspen Giese 6, Emerson Giese 1, McKenna Hanford 1, Dakota Krass 2. Fouls: Fort Benton 17, Turner 16. Fouled out: none.