View from the sidelines

It’s been a cruel, cruel winter.

The winter sports seasons for local high school athletes came to an end last week at divisional basketball tournaments in Ronan and Hamilton.

The final teams to make the state tournaments in the coming weeks were determined in Monday night challenge games.

In Ronan, the surging Anaconda Copperheads beat back the Loyola Rams 70-33 to claim Western B’s final boys slot into the State B tournament in Missoula March 8-10. The Copperheads will join No. 1 ranked and still undefeated Bigfork, which had survived a double overtime 58-57 test from the Anaconda boys in the semifinals Friday night.

On the girls side of the Western B, the Bigfork Vals claimed the title, and will be joined in Missoula by the Deer Lodge Lady Wardens, who had upended favored Florence in the semis Friday.

The Arlee Warriors, who have not lost a game since falling to Plains in Arlee way back in December of 2016, won the Western C crown Saturday night by running down Plains 77-33, and will be joined in Butte by Manhattan Christian for the State C tourney this week.

Manhattan Christian, which finished second to Arlee in the Western C and State C tournaments last winter, defeated the Plains Horsemen 61-32 in a challenge game in Philipsburg Monday night to claim second place again in the Western C.

On the other side of the Western C, Twin Bridges defeated Ennis in the championship tilt Saturday and Ennis then defeated Clark Fork (the co-op between Superior and Alberton) 52-33 Monday night, also in P-Burg, to claim the division’s other berth into the State C.

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Displaying the cruel side of Montana prep sports, several really good teams did not make it out of their respective divisional tourneys and will instead be forced to watch the state tournaments from the sidelines.

Leading that list is coach Jeff Schultz and his previously undefeated Clark Fork Lady Mountain Cats, who first lost to Arlee 57-49 Thursday and then, after winning three straight games, including the consolation final, gained a shot at Ennis and Western C’s second State C berth in a challenge game.

As stated above, Ennis won that game to send Clark Fork, which finishes season play with an impressive 23-2 record, home to their separate schools in Alberton and Superior early.

Another good team that is not going anywhere these next few weeks,

In the Western B girls tourney, the Florence Falcons suffered a similar fate, falling in the semifinals to Deer Lodge.

The Falcons fought back to win third but were denied the opportunity to challenge for second place because they had already lost to Deer Lodge, leaving Florence with a nice-looking but home-bound 20-3 win-loss record.

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Throwback…

Nineteen years ago this week at Linderman Gym in Polson, coach Mike Cole and his Plains Horsemen advanced to the Western B divisional championship game against Mission.

In one of the most exciting Western B championship games ever, the Bulldogs defeated the Horsemen 75-74 in double overtime to win the division title and advance on to the 1999 State B tournament.

Clearly deflated by their tough loss, the Horsemen then lost to Loyola 61-32 in a Monday night challenge and finished the tourney with the third place Western B trophy. Ironically, that score is identical to the one the Horsemen lost their most recent challenge game to Manhattan Christian this past Monday.

Ryan Frye and Keith Meredith scored 18 points each to lead Plains in the ’99 title game with Mission, Kevin Meredith added 17 point, Anders Brooker 12, Daniel Williams five and Travis Vacura four.