County hoopsters hit the road for Ronan tourney

Sanders County basketball players tipped off their season at the Ronan Tip-Off Tournament last weekend. Hot Springs, Plains and Noxon competed in the tournament, which offered an opportunity to play a variety of western Montana schools.

The Plains Horsemen first met the Ronan JV squad on Friday, falling 44-16. On Saturday, the Horsemen were bested by Seeley-Swan 53-14. Despite the losses, coach Tyrel Allen was proud of his young squad. "None of these kids have ever played varsity basketball," Allen stated. "But they didn't quit and that was a big test. They rotated back and forth really well. We definitely need to work on some things, but we had better second halves in both games and defensively overall played pretty good." Allen said the Horsemen played against older teams in the Tip-Off Tourney, so it was good competition for his young team.

Allen said that Will Tatum played well in both games and played hard. Against Ronan, Plains freshman Darren Standeford led in scoring with six points and classmate Zayden Allen had five. Junior Aaron Pfister led in scoring against Seeley-Swan with seven points. "Though we're young and inexperienced, we have some good athletes," Allen added.

The Trotters played Seeley-Swan on Saturday, falling 65-17. The Trotters had a strong third quarter in which they scored 11 of their 17 points. The Trotters also played Ronan JV on Friday. Results of that game were not available.

On Friday, the Noxon girls played Philipsburg-Granite, losing 65-22. Coaches Jordyn Wilkinson of Noxon and Brandon Piazzola of Philipsburg are both alumni from Noxon and former classmates who graduated in 2013. The Devils had a rocky start to the game in the first half. The new team dynamic was still setting in for the girls, which led to a number of turnovers. The team came out of halftime with a sense of renewed energy and cohesiveness. Throughout the second half of the game, the Devils handled the ball better and were more careful about their passes and defense. In the third quarter, the Devils scored 12 points and kept Granite to only 7 points. For the Red Devils, Emily Brown led in scoring with nine points while Amari Hays added five, Vanessa Horner four, and Aubrey Erwin and Meagan Stevens two each. Asha Comings led Philipsburg with 21 points.

Saturday's game against Darby brought with it improved play from the Noxon girls. Eighth grader Callie Cano managed to score two three-pointers in the first half of the game. The game was a real nail-biter during almost every quarter, with the teams evenly matched until Darby pulled away in the final eight minutes.

The Noxon boys were unable to come away from the Ronan tournament with a win, falling to Granite 63-38 on Friday and Darby 46-16 on Saturday. Wyatt Lackner led the Red Devils in scoring against Granite with 19 points. Coach Jared Mellott said the team has some things to work on. The Red Devils will head to Hot Springs on Friday for some cross-county competition.

The Hot Springs Savage Heat also played in the Ronan tournament. Coach Scott Fredrickson's boys went 1-1 in the tournament, beating Lincoln 77-39 on Friday and losing to the Ronan JV 45-36 on Saturday. "We had a pretty good weekend. We got to play a lot of kids and they played hard." Against Lincoln, senior Jack McAllister led Hot Springs with 22 points, 11 rebounds and eight steals. "He had a great game," Fredrickson said. Kyle Lawson added eight points and five assists and Garth Parker 10 rebounds and 10 points. Nate Lawhead was injured and only played half the game, but was five-for-seven from the court, scoring 10 points and adding five rebounds.

In the matchup with Ronan, Lawson had 12 points, McAllister 11, Parker six and freshman Nick McAllister added seven points and nine rebounds. "Nick really stood out this weekend," Fredrickson said. "He had 19 rebounds for the weekend as a freshman." He added that his team only had 13 fouls in the whole weekend, which was impressive as they played man-to-man defense in both games. Fredrickson said Ronan was good competition and it was a close game. "Our defense really kept us in the game." He noted that the team is doing some different things on offense and the team is adjusting to the changes. "We were happy to get a win," Fredrickson added. "It was good to come out against Ronan and play a good team and stay with them. There were times where they could have gotten ahead of us but we stuck with them." Results from the Hot Springs girls games were not available. This weekend, Hot Springs hosts Noxon on Friday and Seeley-Swan on Saturday.