Fourth Place!

They did not place first, second nor third to earn a trophy at the 2025 State C Tournament in Butte America but the Scobey girls’ basketball team was still playing on the final day of the 8-team tourney, for the third-place trophy, and that’s something to celebrate.

Especially since the Lady Spartans lose just one player, Kaytie Aanstad, to graduation while the rest of the team is set to be back for the 2025-26 season beginning in November.

Just qualifying for the State C was a very important achievement for this season’s squad coached by Jedd Lekvold, Ashton Handy and Rob Rouse, as now it has this experience to fall back on when making another run at it 51 weeks from now (first things first, which is qualifying for the East C Divisional Tournament!).

With 11-of-12 on last week’s roster expected to return for another deep run in the 2025-26 season, just qualifying for the State C 8-team field was a huge accomplishment for the program because now it has been there done that, gaining extremely valuable insight on what it takes to get out of the semifinals and into the championship round.

Their quest to reach the top began Wednesday, March 12, against the West Yellowstone Wolverines.

The Spartans took a 2115 lead at halftime against the top team out of the West C Divisional Tournament, out-rebounding it 17-14 with both squads committing seven turnovers.

A big scoring run to begin the second half had Aanstad tallying twice, Avery Wolfe knocking down a 3-pointer and Camrie Holum converting a 3-point play. After Talia Spence netted a 3-ball to get back with 34-18, Scobey freshman Chloe Handran popped a triple of her own from the left wing to get those points right back for a 19-point lead heading in the final quarter. There the Lady Spartans outscored West Yellowstone 10-6 and were on their way to the semifinals.

Scobey made 18-50 (.360) field goals while the Wolverines were 8-35 (.229).

In Thursday night’s semifinal matchup Scobey met eventual State C runnersup Roy-Winifred Red Raiders—they dumped the Outlaws name in the 202324 season and went back to Winifred’s orginal teammascot name.

The Red Raiders set the tone of the contest early as Lyla Ewen hit two treys and Hannah Ewen one to take an 11-8 advantage through the initial quarter.

In the second period H. Ewen cashed in on a couple ...