Four days, eight teams, and many exciting games played in the Blue Pony Corral Wednesday, February 18th through Saturday, February 19th. Here are more details from this week’s basketball event.
Friday, February 18th started with the girls side of the Loser Out matches. First Loser Out match at 8am saw the Turner Lady Tornadoes vs the North Star Lady Knights, and ended with the Lady Knights subduing the Lady Tornadoes 53-25. North Star advanced to the second round of Loser Outs and Turner was the first team to get out on the girls side of the tournament. The other Loser Out match of the morning saw the CJI Lady Hawks vs the Big Sandy Lady Pioneers at 9:30am. The Lady Hawks caught their prey of Lady Pioneers and beat them out 66-48. Big Sandy was the second girls team to be out and head home in the tournament.
More Loser Out matches happened that same morning on the boys side of things, with the Chinook Sugarbeeters playing against the Hays-Lodgepole Thunderbirds at 11am. Chinook brought the beat to beat out Hays-Lodgepole 56-46. The Thunderbirds were the third team of the day and third boys team to get out of the tournament. At 12:30pm, the Box Elder Bears and Fort Benton Horns hit the court. The Bears broke some Horns with a score of 73-63. With Fort Benton out, the Chinook Sugarbeeters and Box Elder Bears were set to face off later in the day for the Boys Consolation game.
Back to the girls with their semifinals matches, Fort Benton faced off against Box Elder at 4pm, with the Lady Bears also breaking some Horns, Lady Horns that is, and ending the game 55-37. The Chinook Lady Sugarbeeters were against the Hays-Lodgepole Lady Thunderbirds at 5:30pm. With such a close semifinal match and thinning beat puns, the Lady Sugarbeeters won the match over the Lady Thunderbirds 51-48. Fort Benton and Hays-Lodgepole were sent to the second Loser Out matches, and Box Elder & Chinook set to face off in the girls Championship.
Speaking of Box Elder and Chinook, those boys teams went head to head at 7pm for the Boys Consolation match. Both teams played well, but there would only be one team securing the 3rd seed spot of the Tournament. The Chinook Sugarbeeters won against the Box Elder Bears 71-69. Immediately afterwards, CJI vs. Big Sandy for the Boys Championship game. The CJI Hawks beat the Big Sandy Pioneers 38-33, won the championship and the 1st seed spot.
The last day of the Tournament, Saturday the 19th contained only four games with them all being about the girls teams. First match of the 2nd round of Loser Outs pitted CJI against Fort Benton, and the Lady Horns speared the Lady Hawks with a final score 44-35. The second match of the Loser Outs saw Hays-Lodgepole vs North Star, and the Lady Thunderbirds shocked the Lady Knights 53-40. CJI and North Star were the third and four girls teams to be beat out respectively.
Later that day Fort Benton vs Hays Lodgepole at 4pm for the Girls Consolation match. A close game this was, with the Fort Benton Lady Horns securing the win 45-40 along with the 3rd seed spot. The last game of this entire tournament followed with the Chinook Lady Sugarbeeters vs the Box Elder Lady Bears for the Girls Championship game. This time the Lady Sugarbeeters got beat by the Lady Bears 56-51. The Fort Benton Lady Bears “took home the gold” and the 1st seed spot on the girls side of this tournament.
After these exciting four days of basketball, the standings are as follows.
On the boys side:
3rd. The Chinook Sugarbeeters 2nd. The Big Sandy Pioneers 1st. The Chester-Joplin-Inverness Hawks.
On the girls side:
3rd. The Fort Benton Lady Horns 2nd. The Chinook Lady Sugarbeeters 1st. The Box Elder Lady Bears
These six teams will advance to the Northern C Boys and Girls Basketball Tournament at the Four Season Arena in Great Falls on February 23-26th, 2022. Stay tuned to New Media Broadcasters Sports and HiLineToday.com for coverage on the Northern C Tournament!
