Sunday Recap 3-10-19

For the final Sunday Recap of the winter prep sports season we take a look at the final weekend of prep winter sports with the MHSA boys and girls state basketball tournaments with four of the five schools combining for a total of five teams in play.

Girls Basketball
Starting at the Class AA level the Hellgate girls basketball team would be the only Missoula school to send a team to the girls tournament, their first state tournament appearance since 2003. Hellgate would pick up a win the opening night, but ran into a tough West team the semi-final that sent the girls from Hellgate to the consolation bracket.

Bouncing back Saturday morning Hellgate would earn a right to play for third place in the consolation championship. After a tough battle against the Capital Lady Bruins Hellgate would come out victorious to bring third place hardware home.

The Loyola Breakers would make their first state tournament appearance after a long spell with a trip to Belgrade for the Class B girls state tournament. Loyola came out the opening day hot to make the semi-final with an impressive win, but faced an experienced Wolf Point team in the girls semi-final that dropped the Breakers into the consolation bracket.

Having to make the quick turn around to the Saturday morning game Loyola would overcome the loss the day before to play their way into the consolation championship. Having beaten Three Forks in the opening game the Breakers came out aggressive which led to Loyola finishing the tournament as the third place team in all of Class B girls basketball.

Boys Basketball
Loyola would tip off the boys postseason on Wednesday and in a dominating fashion as the Rams would move on to the semi-finals on Thursday night. Getting a full days rest Loyola would take on a hot shooting Colstrip team that had battled to their way into the semi-finals, and Colstrip wold give the Rams a full games worth of drama to earn Loyola a right to the play for a state title.

In the Class B boys state championship game it would be an all west showdown as the Rams would face the Bigfork Vikings for the fourth time on the season. The opening quarter was a battle for the lead, which led to the Rams staying ahead of the Vikings for middle portion of the game, but late in the contest Bigfork’s offense would show up and the Vikings would take home their second straight title.

Hellgate has been the top dog in all of Class AA boys basketball for the entire season, going into the tournament as the number one team out of the west and took down the Skyview Falcons in the opening round. In the semi-final game the Knights would have to play one of their tournament nemesis in the Great Falls Bison and overcame the Bison curse with lop sided victory.

The Knights were headed for the Class AA boys championship game with a match up against one of the strongest teams in Class AA boys basketball in the Bozeman Hawks. With the first half ending in a tie at 22 it was only fitting that the game would need an overtime period to decide the Class AA champion with the Hawks getting the final bucket at the buzzer to win the state Class AA title.

The Sentinel Spartans would join the Hellgate Knights in Butte at the Class AA boys state tournament and opened against a quick Great Falls Bison, but the Spartans where not able to hang on and fell to the consolation side of the bracket. In a win or go home situation the Spartans took on the vaunted Skyview Falcons on Thursday morning and Sentinel would knock off the Falcons to head to the consolation semi-final. In a tough battle against the West Golden Bears the Spartans would finish their season one game short of the consolation championship game.