View from the Sidelines

There was redemption, there was heartache but, in the end, the Montana high school basketball seasons closed out last weekend in state tournaments across the Big Sky Country last week.

Bigfork repeated as the State B boys champions, but fellow western Montana teams like the Missoula Hellgate and Arlee boys and the Florence girls tasted defeat after winning their ways into state championship games.

For a more in-depth view, let us take a tournament-by-tournament look at what went down hoop-wise in Montana high school basketball last week.

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The combined State B tournament in Belgrade started Wednesday with the boys beginning a day ahead and wound up Saturday night with the girls consolation and championship games.

On the boys side, Western B powers Bigfork and Missoula Loyola opened with wins Wednesday as the Vikings topped Big Timber 61-45 and Loyola dumped Rocky Boy 64-42. Bigfork then tripped up Poplar 75-60 and Loyola outlasted Colstrip 56-51 in the semifinals Thursday to set up the Western B showdown in the championship Friday.

In that title game, Loyola streaked out to a lead of 15-6 after one quarter but Bigfork soon battled back, taking control of the game with a 17-5 win of the third quarter to build a 36-30 lead heading into the fourth. The District 7B regular season champs, Bigfork hung on to win from there, giving the Vikings their second straight State B title and their third since 2014.

Always a bridesmaid and never a bride, the Fighting Rams are now 0-3 in State B championship games after also falling to Chinook in 1968 and to Choteau in 2015.

Bigfork and Loyola met four times this year with the teams splitting regular season games and Bigfork winning the final two most important matchups, in the Western B and State B title games.

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In the girls State B, the Western B champion Florence Falcons won their way into the championship tilt – defeating Three Forks 50-48 Thursday and Forsyth 59-37 in the semifinals Friday – before falling to Wolf Point 48-35 in the chipper.

Missoula Loyola, which lost to Wolf Point 54-44 in the first round Thursday, came back to claim third place, defeating Fairfield 57-54 in overtime Friday, getting the best of Forsyth 59-45 Saturday morning and finally, upending defending State B champion Three Forks 42-31 in the consolation game.

All told, Western B teams won four of the six State B team trophies handed out in Belgrade last week, marking perhaps the best showing ever by the Western B division at the State B tournaments.

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In the boys State C tournament at the Metra in Billings, the Arlee Warriors were going for a third straight State C crown, but were denied in that bid by revenge-minded Manhattan Christian.

The Manhattan Christian Eagles, who lost the 2017 and 2018 Western C and State C championship games to Arlee, left little doubt about which team was better this year, blowing away the Warriors 83-51 in the championship game Saturday night.

Coach Zanen Pitts’ Warriors had gained the championship berth by defeating Scobey 63-57 Thursday and Chinook 72-61 Friday, while Man Christian was defeating Fairview 54-48 and Melstone 40-36 to grab their spots in the title game.

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The combined State A boys and girls tournaments played out at Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls last week, and the Billings Central boys and Havre girls ended up leaving the building with the 2019 State A championships.

Billings Central defeated Hardin 62-44 for the boys title and Havre knocked off Hardin 42-36 for the girls championship.

The Columbia Falls girls, after losing 58-29 to Laurel in the first round Thursday, came all the way back to claim third place, defeating Laurel 46-44 in overtime of the consolation game.

Butte Central and Hamilton earned their ways into the boys consolation, with Central scoring a 54-51 double overtime win in that contest to take third place.

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In the combined State AA tournaments at the Civic Center in Butte, Bozeman overcame years of frustration by upsetting favored Missoula Hellgate 55-53 in the boys championship game and Helena ran past Billings West 55-37 in the girls title game.

The Bozeman boys had lost the last three State AA championship games but ended up persevering and finally winning the title this time on a last-second shot. The State AA crown for the Helena girls was the third straight for the Bengals.

Billings West defeated Great Falls 53-40 to win the AA boys consolation and Missoula Hellgate out-pointed Helena Capital 51-38 to win third place in the girls tourney.