Frontier tourneys have Flathead Valley feel

As the Frontier Conference basketball tournaments approach, a question is raised: When’s the last time Aubrie Rademacher of Glacier High (Class of 2020) and Maddy Moy of Flathead (‘23) squared off?

Turns out it was less than a week ago. Rademacher’s Montana Tech Orediggers traveled to Dillon and lost to Moy’s Western Montana Bulldogs, 73-63 this past Thursday.

This coming Thursday, in a Great Falls barn we now call the Pacific Steel & Recycling Four Seasons Arena, they’ll meet again. The Frontier men’s and women’s tournaments run through Saturday, and there’s a bit of Flathead Valley flavor to both.

Montana Tech is the No. 6 seed going into the women’s tournament, and Rademacher is a redshirt junior having her finest season. She’s averaging 10.1 points and 6.4 rebounds for the 12-16 Orediggers.

Meanwhile Moy has logged big minutes as a true freshman for 16-12 Western, averaging 7.1 points and 4.9 rebounds for the No. 3-seeded Bulldogs. She had six points and one rebound against Tech last week. Rademacher had 11 points and five rebounds.

The winner of their next matchup — tip-off is 7 p.m. Thursday —  will face either top-seeded Carroll College or No. 2 seed Providence College in Friday’s semifinals. 

The Saints are the favorite, riding standout seasons from former Lady Griz players Jamie Pickens and Kyndall Keller to a 23-4 record.

The Saints also have redshirt freshman Clare Converse (Flathead ‘22) on the roster, and she’s logged 39 minutes in nine games. 

At 5 p.m. Thursday MSU-Northern gets the women’s tournament started against Rocky Mountain College. 

The Lights’ second-leading scorer is senior forward Ryley Kehr out of Columbia Falls: She’s averaging 11.3 points and 4.9 rebounds. On Dec. 11, after scoring 18 points with nine rebounds and six assists in Northern’s 106-52 win over Alberta-Augustana, Kehr was named Frontier women’s player of the week.

That award has gone to Carroll’s Pickens five times this season; Western’s Jordan Sweeney has taken it twice, same as Providence’s Ashlee Maldonado. Sweeney leads the Frontier in scoring at 20.4 points a game, and Pickens is next at 18.4 followed by Maldonado at 17.5.

Pickens is the league’s top rebounder at 11.1 a game, while Rademacher ranks third.

Maldonado’s Argonauts are the No. 2 seed, their roster includes freshman Bethany Sorenson out of Glacier. She’s played 39 minutes in 13 games.

Rademacher also has two Tech teammates from the Valley: Madison Chappuis, a freshman out of Bigfork, and Taylor Henley, a senior out of Flathead. Both have played sparingly.

Chappuis has logged 14 minutes in four games; Henley, an all-Frontier volleyball player at Tech who joined the basketball team this season, has 19 minutes in six games. 

For the record, Rademacher and Moy did square off in the 2019-20 high school season. Moy was a freshman and Rademacher, a senior, helped the Wolfpack win both meetings.

On the men’s side Montana Tech welcomed Caleb Bellach back from injury, got another excellent season from guard Asa Williams and also picked up Carroll transfer Ifeanyi Okeke (8 points, team-high 6.4 rebounds a game)  

It’s no wonder the Diggers are 24-4 and the No. 1 seed going into the tournament. The Butte school also landed freshman center Noah Dowler out of Glacier; he’s played in one game, but grabbed three rebounds in four minutes of action.

Carroll College recovered nicely from the resignation of coach Kurt Paulson and transfers of  Okeke and Braydon Koch (he’s redshirting at Tech) to go 18-10 and hand Tech its only league loss.

Andrew Cook leads the league in scoring (20.7 ppg) and adds 5.7 rebounds per game.

Logging 10 minutes in two games for Carroll this season is true freshman Luke Frampton, who a year ago was playing for Stillwater Christian.