Combined 14C tourney promises plenty of action

It’s been a wild season on both the girls’ and boys’ sides in District 14C this season, the question is: Can it get any wilder this weekend at the combined 14C tournament this week?

Hoping the answer to that question is yes, 14C teams will gather at Joe McDonald Gym in Pablo for the conference tourney beginning Thursday and wrapping up Saturday. If challenge games are required, those will be played Monday.

All three schools and six 14C teams from Sanders County will be in action Thursday in the first round. The No. 4 seed in the girls bracket, Hot Springs will open the tournament at 11 a.m. against the No. 5 seeded St. Regis Lady Tigers. The Hot Springs boys, also seeded No. 4, will play the No. 5 Noxon boys at 12:45 and, after the girls’ game between No. 2 Charlo and No. 7 Two Eagle River at 2:30 and the boys’ game between the No. 2 Charlo Vikings and No. 7 Two Eagle River Eagles at 4:15, the No. 3 Plains Trotters will square off with the No. 6 Noxon Lady Red Devils at 6, followed by the third-seeded Plains Horsemen playing sixth-seeded Noxon at 7:45 p.m. in the last game of the first day.

The top two teams from each tournament will advance on to the Western C divisional tournament in Butte Feb. 21-23, a place all six county teams are hoping to be going next week.

Although Arlee is heavily favored on the boys’ side, Arlee and Charlo are the co-favorites in the girls’ tourney.

The following is a look at how each side of the 14C may go.

Girls

Arlee and Charlo finished tied for the top spot in final 14C standings, thanks to a road win by Charlo in Arlee last week, but neither team is a shoo-in for the one of the top two spots.

“It’s down to the nitty gritty and the teams that want to move on need to step up,” Plains Trotter coach Eddie Fultz said. “To me, it looks like it depends on the matchups. Some teams play better against one team but no sot much against another. We would like to rise above that this week and play well no matter who we are facing.”

Hot Springs coach Richard Jackson thinks there are five teams that are in the mix, and also hopes that his Savage Heat rise to the occasion.

“The way I see it you have the top two – Charlo and Arlee – and then you have three dark-horses in Plains, St. Regis and us,” he said. “The big thing for us is to take it one game at a time, starting with St. Regis Thursday.

“We have had a couple of tough games with them already so we know what we need to do,” he added. “They are well-coached and aren’t going to beat themselves, we need to get out on their shooters and play good, smart basketball otherwise.”

If the Savage Heat get past St. Regis, Arlee would be next for Hot Springs in the semifinals Friday. The Plains-Noxon winner will likely face Charlo in the other semi.

“We don’t care if we have to play Arlee in the semis, so what if they are 11-1 in league play?” Jackson said. “You are going to have to play the better teams to get through this thing at some point, and we think we can compete with any team in this league. We will be ready for that game if we get past St. Regis.”

Fultz echoed those sentiments in regard to his Trotters.

“This is the time to go out and play your best,” he said. “We feel like we are in a good place mentally and physically and, even if we lose at some point, there could be a path back through the consolation bracket.

“There is a lot of opportunity there,” he added, “we just need to play good defense, get some shots down and see where that takes us.”

Noxon coach Ryan Weltz knows the deck is stacked against his incredibly young Lady Devils, who have a few eighth grade players in the rotation. Noxon fortunes took another blow when it was learned that senior Kristina Brown, a player who has seen extensive action since her freshman season, was shelved with a mono-like illness recently.

“It would help having Kristina but we have to do what we have to do without her,” he said. “We will play our hardest and see what happens.”

Boys

The two-time defending District 14C, Western C and State C champion Arlee Warriors are heavy favorites to three-peat as 14C champs in Pablo but, beyond them, the fight for the No. 2 spot could be wide open with no clear-cut favorites between Charlo, Plains, Hot Springs and St. Regis, although Noxon and Two Eagle River hope to have a say as well.

Charlo played the best when it counted and finished with only two league losses (both to Arlee) this season, but the Vikings obviously can be had as evidenced by Hot Springs’ one-point loss in Charlo Saturday, a game that the Savage Heat think they should have won.

The Vikings also won a tight game from the Horsemen in Plains early this season, although they did have one of their better games of the season in rushing past the Horsemen in Charlo later on.

Hot Springs coach Cameron Barber thinks the fight for second place is wide open.

“We needed to win to take third in the district,” Barber said of Saturday’s game with Charlo. “But we know we can play with them and would welcome the chance if we were to meet them again.”

Coach Tyrel Allen’s Plains Horsemen nailed down the No. 3 seed by topping Noxon and Two Eagle last week. He thinks his Horsemen could get through to the Western C if they play like they are capable.

“It’s tournament time and we want to come out playing with intensity and purpose,” he said. “It’s a bigger stage in Pablo, McDonald Court is longer and wider than we are used to playing on, but it is still basketball. We just have to play like I know we can and we should be right in the mix this weekend.”

Noxon coach Bart Haflich, whose Devils threw a scare into Arlee in the 14C semifinals last year in a similar situation, hopes for more of the same this weekend.

“We would like to play our best in Pablo, we have kind of an up-and-down ride this season,” he said. “I would like us to take care of the ball better and be more aggressive on offense.”