Sixteen Teams Battling For Four State C Berths Began Wednesday
Half of the berths for the Montana High School Association’s (MHSA) 47th annual Class C Girls and 74th annual Class C Boys State Basketball Tournaments were filled on Saturday and Monday while the other half will be decided this week.
Both state tourneys are scheduled to be played at Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls March 6-9.
That same venue was the site of the North C Divisional Girls’ Tournament, where the Roy-Winifred Outlaws (20-3, 1263-744, 54.9-32.3) defeated the Denton-Geyser-Stanford-Geraldine Bearcats (20-4, 1356-853, 56.5-35.5) 46-38 in the championship game. The Bearcats were challenged Monday night by the Big Sandy Pioneers (22-6, 1502-1228, 53.6-43.8) and were defeated 56-52 in a big win for Big Sandy.
At the West C Divisional Tournament in Frenchtown, the Twin Bridges Falcons (21-1, 1154-575, 52.4-26.1) handled the White Sulphur Springs Hornets (14-9, 933942, 40.5-40.9) 59-34 in the championship contest.
Twin Bridges battles Big Sandy at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7, while Roy-Winifred faces White Sulphur Springs later the same afternoon at 5 p.m.
The other two first-round matchups on Thursday the 7th have the first-place East Division squad meeting the second-place team from the South Division at 12 p.m. The South champ plays the East runnersup at 3:30 p.m.
Over on the boys’ side the top-ranked Box Elder Bears (22-0, 1818-1231, 82.6-55.9) experienced their closest contest of the season with a 54-45 win over the Belt Huskies (19-9, 13471073, 53.8-42.9) in Saturday’s North championship game. Belt was challenged late Monday afternoon by the Winnett-Grass Range Rangers (22-4, 1427-1191, 54.8-45.8) with the co-op team scoring a 53-49 win to advance to the State C.
In Frenchtown at the West C Division gathering it was b-ball business as usual for the Manhattan Christian Eagles (23-1, 1607-886, 66.9-36.9), who thumped the Harrison Wildcats (17-7, 1458-1064, 60.7-44.3) 6338 in the title game. Business as usual because it was the Eagles’ sixth consecutive divisional-tourney title and next week in the Electric City will be their 10th straight State C appearance!
Manhattan Christian battles Winnett-Grass Range at 4:30 p.m. in game two of the State C Wednesday, March 6, while Harrison will be the next squad trying to inflict Box Elder its first setback of the season.
The other two first-round boys’ games on Wednesday’s opening has the East champion meeting the South runnersup at 3 p.m. in the tourney opener; first-place South facing second-place East at 6 p.m.
That said, here is a look at what will be occurring this week to see what eight teams will be filling out the remainder of two State C brackets.
Th...
