That championship season

In the end, 2019-2020 will go down as another championship season for the storied Plains Horsemen basketball program.

The Horsemen’s championship run ended for the season at the Western C divisional tournament in Frenchtown last week as the Plains boys fell to Gardiner 60-47 in the first round Thursday and then to Darby 66-49 in loser-out play Friday.

Manhattan Christian defeated Gardiner 72-55 in the Western C championship game Saturday. Twin Bridges then upended Gardiner 49-41 in a Monday night challenge game to earn the division’s other spot in the State C tournament in Missoula March 12-14.

Wrapping up their District 14C championship campaign with a 17-5 record, the Horsemen went 12-0 against conference competition, capturing the 14C regular season and tournament titles along the way. And those accomplishments will remain recorded in the annals of hoop history from this day forward.

“We had a really good season, especially in conference play,” coach Tyrel Allen, a proud product of Plains High School himself said. “We for sure would have like to have done better in Frenchtown but we can’t lose sight of the fact that we still had a really good run this year.”

Allen said outside shooting was the big difference in the game with Gardiner. The Bruins couldn’t seem to miss, making eight of 11 3-point attempts while Allen indicated the Horsemen went “oh for something” in their efforts from beyond the arc.

“They moved the ball well and played a tight man-to-man defense,” he said. “I thought they were the third-best team there behind Manhattan Christian and Twin and that’s the way things ended up.”

Treydon Brouillette led the Horsemen against Gardiner with 18 points, Kade Pardee scored seven, Esvin Reyes six, Nathan Feliksa five, Jake Weyers four, Parker Flock, Tristan Subatch and Tyson Brouillette two each and Garth Parker one.

Elijah Byrd scored 25 points to lead the Bruins, Vern Horner added 10, Taylor Rose nine and Evan Guengerich eight.

Cold shooting again afflicted the Horsemen in their loser-out game with Darby, a team they had defeated by over 20 points in Darby earlier this season. The Tigers took advantage of the ice-cold shooting from the Horsemen to run out to a 19-2 lead and were never threatened after that.

Pardee led Plains against the Tigers with 17 points, Treydon Brouillette scored 14, Reyes seven, Parker Flock six, Weyers and Duncan Chisholm two apiece and Feliksa one.

Nelson Smith poured in 35 points to lead Darby to the win.

Looking ahead to next season, Allen will miss his seniors but sees his Horsemen being competitive again. “We are going to reload, we should be fine,” he said. “We accomplished our biggest goal of getting to the divisional tournament this year, maybe we can take that next big step next year.”