Horsemen playing with passion

The Horsemen are playing with unbridled basketball passion.

Seeming to want to go full tilt at all times last week, the sometimes impatient Plains boys split home games, shading Valley Christian 66-41 Friday but falling to Seeley-Swan 47-44 Saturday.

Now 3-1 overall, coach Tyrel Allen wants his Horsemen to slow down and smell the roses – or at least slow down and appreciate the opportunities they are given.

The Horsemen were set to open District 14C conference play at Charlo Tuesday but results of that game were not available.

"Our shot selection was pretty poor," Allen said referring to the Seeley-Swan game. "We shot out to a big lead early (the Horsemen led 19-8 after the first quarter) but then we started settling for 3-point attempts and Seeley managed to come back."

The main force behind that comeback, the Black Hawks' Owen Mercado schooled the Horsemen for a game-high 28 points on efficient 12 of 17 shooting from the floor.

Shot selection clearly affected the outcome as Seeley converted over 40% of their shots while Plains made only 22% of their attempts.

"We just didn't execute our offense, go through our sets like we should," Allen said. "We are not being patient enough, picking up a lot of charging fouls, we just need to slow down a little bit."

Jake Weyers and Kade Pardee scored 11 points each to pace Plains against Seeley, Esvin Reyes and Treydon Brouillette added eight points apiece, Nathan Feliska four and Parker Flock two.

In Friday's game with Valley Christian, the Horsemen broke open a tight game with a 10-4 win of the second quarter and cruised to the win.

Pardee threw down a season-high 26 points to lead the Plains win, Brouillette was good for 20 more, Weyers added seven, Flock and Feliska four apiece and Reyes two.

Riley Reimer scored 13 points for the Eagles and Eyan Becker 12.