Basketball: Bigfork takes top seeds into Western B divisional
Bigfork opens the Western B divisional basketball tournament today in Hamilton, looking to make a trip to the state tournament with a strong weekend. The top two boys and girls teams from the West earn a spot in Bozeman on Mar. 13-15. Eureka also sent boys and girls teams to the tournament, Troy sending a boys team and Ronan a girls team.
The No. 1 Bigfork Vikings (20-0) open against St. Ignatius at 6 p.m. tonight, the fourth seed from District 6B. Bigfork played the Bulldogs (7-14) twice this season, handling them easily each time, 67-38 on Jan. 4 in St. Ignatius and 76-50 on Feb. 1 in Bigfork. St. Ignatius fell to Deer Lodge in the 6B consolation final, losing 80-75 in overtime.
“Stuart Grant is the guy that makes them go,” Vikings coach Josh Downey said. “The last two times we’ve played he’s scored half their points. We’re going to focus a lot on him.
“We’re just making sure we’re suring up all the details, knowing the margin of error is small.”
The real danger in the tournament comes from a possible third contest against Florence (11-9), winners of the 6B tournament, who took Bigfork to overtime in Florence in the first meeting this season before losing handily two weeks ago in Bigfork. Missoula Loyola (14-6) has also played well this season, finishing the regular season as the ninth-ranked team in Class B before getting upset on a last-second putback by the Falcons at the district tournament.
“It’s do or die,” Downey said. “I try to make practice hard so they aren’t content with anything ever. They know what we have ahead of us and what we have to do.
“Ninety-nine percent of our focus is on ourselves. We know if we do what we’re supposed to the scoreboard will take care of itself.”
Eureka (10-10), the second seed from the 7B, opens against Deer Lodge (9-11) at 2:45 p.m. today. The winner will play the winner of the Florence-Troy contest. Plains plays Loyola across from Bigfork’s game against St. Ignatius.
The No. 8 Bigfork girls (16-4) recovered from regular season losses to No. 6 Plains (15-5) to win the 7B tournament title, earning a first-round game against 6B four seed Ronan on Thursday morning. Bigfork met the Maidens (11-10) back in December at the Tip-Off tournament, but know that team is far different than the one it’ll see this weekend.
“We don’t expect them to be much of a resemblance of the team we played at the beginning of the year,” Valkyries coach Mark Hansen said. “I hope both of us have evolved into better teams.”
Deer Lodge (17-1) enters the contest as the favorite on the girls side, finishing the season as the fourth-ranked team in the state. The Wardens only loss this season came by two points to No. 5 Manhattan, and they bring back most of a team that placed fourth at state last season.
Along with Loyola (11-9), Florence (11-9) and Plains, the girls tournament is wide open for the two spots to state.
“(Deer Lodge) has to be the favorite going in, with the rest of us fighting for that second spot,” Hansen said. “We’re focused on the next game up. Right now that’s Ronan. If we get by them, we’ll see who’s next and go about it like that.”
Deer Lodge opens against Eureka (5-16), who earned the four seed from 7B. The winner would play the winner of Florence’s opener against Troy.
Both the boys and girls contests are a double-elimination tournament, with a challenge game scheduled for Saturday, if needed, on the boys side and Monday for the girls.