Maroons defeat Pirates

BOZEMAN - Frustration settled in and the Pirates tried shooting their way out of it.

Against the Maroons' man-to-man defense, that can be a hollow hope.

Butte Central limited Polson to three points in the second quarter and eight points in the fourth on the way to a 51-41 first-round victory at the Class A boys state basketball tournament on Thursday night.

Polson (14-7) drops to loser-out action today against Billings Central (8-14) at 2 p.m. Butte Central (16-5) advances to the semifinals against Dillon (19-2) tonight at 8.

Dillon defeated Billings Central 73-56 in a first-round matchup.

"That was a great win for us. I thought our defense was awesome after that first quarter," Butte Central head coach Brodie Kelly said.

The Maroons fell behind 17-13 after Polson shot 5-for-6 behind the arc in the first quarter. But that ended up producing false confidence for the Pirates. When Central's top-notch defense sharpened up, Polson's game went dull.

"Our guys toughened up in the second quarter and did a good job," Kelly said.

"We're a very simple team, we don't make a whole heckuva lot of adjustments. I just thought we had to play with more intensity and take more pride in not getting beat. And that's what our guys did."

Polson finished 8-for-25 from deep, 16-for-44 from the floor and had only seven offensive rebounds.

"We were hot that first quarter hitting five 3s but you can't do that the whole game. You have to be able to run an offense and be able to get some shots inside and we didn't do that tonight," Polson head coach Brad Pluff said.

"We did a lot of standing and didn't execute real well. Give them credit. They outplayed us tonight."

Central frustrated Polson's top two scorers - Louis Mohr and Kyle Bagnell - and held the pair to 12 total points, well below the roughly 30 points they've combined for on average this season. Mohr had 10.

Vince DiGiallonardo led the Pirates with 12 and Tyler Krell had nine points and six rebounds.

Andy Ritter paced the Maroons with 13 points.

"We got real stagnant on offense and they had a lot to do with that. But we had something to do with that, too," Pluff said.

"We did a lot of standing, looking for the three and you can't do that against a good defensive team. We just didn't get it done today."

Central didn't exactly thrill on offense, either, and Polson stayed within striking distance, trailing only 36-33 going into the final quarter.

But just like it did in the second quarter, Central's defense got humming and held the Pirates to only one basket and a free throw until there was 53.6 seconds left and the lead by then was 50-36. Mohr and DiGiallonardo had fouled out by that point and the rest of the starters for both teams took the bench with much different looks on their faces.

A year after earning second place, Polson finds itself clinging to its season.

"I told them we have a choice. We can quit or come back," Pluff said.

"We can still play Saturday night (for third place) which is a big deal. But nobody is going to feel sorry for us tomorrow because we didn't play well today. So hopefully they'll come back and play well."

Butte Central 51, Polson 41

Polson 17 3 13 8 - 41

Butte Central 13 10 13 15 - 51

POLSON - Louis Mohr 4-18 0-0 10, Kyle Bagnell 1-6 0-0 2, Tyler Krell 4-5 1-4 9, Sheldon Fisher 1-4 0-0 3, Vince DiGiallonardo 4-6 0-0 12, Ian Laimbeer 0-0 0-0 0, Zack Camel 1-3 0-0 3, Cody Fischer 1-1 0-0 2, Will Davey 0-1 0-0 0, Riley Sampson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-44 1-4 41.

BUTTE CENTRAL - Phil Antonioli 2-2 3-6 7, Jonathan Richards 2-8 2-3 7, Aschan Richards 4-8 1-1 9, Andy Ritter 4-9 3-4 13, Colin Hollow 2-3 0-0 4, Keegan McCarthy 3-5 0-0 7, Zach Kasperick 1-2 1-3 3, Jake Simkins 0-1 0-0 0, Brady Tippett 0-0 1-2 1, Kevin Burt 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Ritter 0-0 0-2 0, Cole Noctor 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-38 11-21 51.

3-point goals - Polson 8-25 (DiGiallonardo 4-5, Mohr 2-10, Camel 1-3, Fisher 1-3, Bagnell 0-3, Davey 0-1), Butte Central 4-11 (Ritter 2-5, J.Richards 1-3, McCarthy 1-2, Simkins 0-1). Rebounds - Polson 23 (Krell 6), Polson 30 (Antonioli 7). Fouls - Polson 18, Butte Central 6. Fouled out - DiGiallonardo. Blocks - Polson 3 (Mohr 2, Krell), Butte Central 1 (McCarthy). Steals - Polson 4 (Bagnell 3), Butte Central 2. Turnovers - Polson 10, Butte Central 10.

Dillon 73, Billings Central 56

Dillon 16 22 19 16 - 73

Billings Central 13 9 18 16 - 56

DILLON - Wes Knox 5-9 4-8 14, J.T. Linder 7-14 0-0 18, Monte Folsom 3-4 3-5 9, Chevy Reed 4-8 1-3 9, Austin Williams 4-6 0-0 11, Ben Folsom 1-5 4-6 6, Tyson Reese 0-1 2-2 2, Evan Williams 1-1 0-0 4, Cache King 1-1 0-0 2, Austin Schurg 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Basile 0-0 0-0 0, Caleb Gillis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-49 14-24 73.

BILLINGS CENTRAL - Ryan Burke 7-17 4-8 21, James Stanton 2-4 1-2 5, John Werner 0-0 0-0 0, Justin MacDonald 2-4 1-1 5, Jacob Stanton 2-4 0-2 5, Joe Barta 4-6 3-3 11, Ian Byorth 0-2 1-2 1, Dylan Hanser 2-2 0-0 4, Daniel Meyer 1-3 0-0 2, Brandon Kuehn 0-0 0-0 0, Bobby Kell 1-2 0-0 2, Zach Harris 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-44 10-18 56.

3-point goals - Dillon 7-14 (Linder 4-7, Williams 3-5, Knox 0-1, B.Folsom 0-1), Central 4-11 (Burke 3-8, Jac.Stanton 1-1, MacDonald 0-1, Barta 0-1). Rebounds - Dillon 25 (Linder 6), Central 28 (Burke 7). Fouls - Dillon 17, Central 17. Blocks - Dillon 2 (Reed, Linder), Central 3 (3 with 1). Steals - Dillon 14 (Reed 4), Central 9 (Jam.Stanton 3). Turnovers - Dillon 15, Central 24.