State A: C-Falls looks to knock down Eagles
To be sure, these are not last year’s Lewistown Eagles, who went 24-0 and won the State A boys basketball championship.
Royce Robinson graduated and Fischer Brown moved to Utah for a prep school, for starters. Yet the Eagles, 10-11 record and all, are Eastern A champions.
That’s who the 14-8 Columbia Falls Wildcats draw at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at this year’s State A tournament in Butte.
“Obviously, every team there is very deserving,” Columbia Falls coach Chris Finberg said. “And I would say Lewistown’s record is very deceiving. They were like us at the start of the year, dealing with a lot of injuries. And now they’re as healthy as they’ve been and have won seven of eight.
“And they’re state champions until someone knocks them off.”
Three area teams are vying for hardware at the Butte Civic Center this weekend, including the Browning Lady Indians and Bigfork Vals. Browning plays three-time defending State A girls champion Havre, and Bigfork squares off with Lockwood.
The Wildcats get off to the earliest start.
C-Falls vs. Lewistown
Jace Hill (16 points, 4.7 rebounds a game) and Cody Schweikert (15.6 points and 6.7 rebounds) continue to lead Columbia Falls, but Finberg is also pleased with how the return of Reggie Sapa, who has played 16 games, and Hunter Goodman, who came back nine games ago.
“Those two guys, with their injuries from football, late in the year gave us a spark off the bench” Which has made us a deeper team.”
Brody Jenness leads the Eagles in scoring at 10.1 points per game, on a team that averages just a shade over 46. Lewistown plays stout defense, and in the Eagles’ Maxx Ray Finberg sees a player more explosive than his statistics (3.3 points and 2.5 rebounds per game) suggest.
Wylee Snapp and Trajan Sparks both added over 8 ppg for Lewistown.
“This is as wide-open as I’ve seen a Class A tournament, in terms of there’s four or five teams that can win it,” Finberg said. “It’s anybody’s ball game, it’s anybody’s tournament. That’s for sure.”
Browning vs. Havre
Browning has a proud girls basketball program that consistently sits near the top of the Northwest A standings and makes state tournaments.
Havre has something different: The Blue Ponies have won five of the last six State A titles under coach Dustin Kraske.
Browning has played some tight games with them, and took a 59-58 victory over the Ponies last season. It’s also Poorboy Croff’s lone win over the Blue Ponies in eight matchups as the Lady Indians’ head coach, but he knows his squad can play them tough.
“If you don’t play 32 minutes with them, you’re probably going to get beat,” Croff said. “They just keep coming and grinding.
“They beat us pretty handily the first time we played them (73-42), but the thing is if we were in a boat we couldn’t have thrown it in the ocean. Same shots as always, they just didn’t fall for us.
If we knock our shots down, we’re capable of playing with them.”
Browning (15-7) is led by Jerel White Grass (10.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game) and Teslin Trombley (8.6 ppg), but it’s another deep team: Another six players average 4.3 points or more, and can go big.
Havre’s Ariana Gary and Amaya Jarvis both average over 14 points and six rebounds a game. The Blue Ponies (18-3) avenged a 45-43 home loss to Miles City on Jan. 26 with a win in the Eastern A championship. It was their eighth straight win.
Bigfork vs. Lockwood
Valkyries coach Cortnee Gunlock likes the guard tandem of Tailey Smith (13.6 ppg) and Dani Jordan (18.3 points and 8.0 rebounds) for the Lockwood Lions (15-7).
She also likes her backcourt, of course: junior Braeden Gunlock, sophomore Paeten Gunlock and junior Ava Davey, who combine for 42 points a game.
“I do think we have three of the best guards in the state, at their age level,” Cortnee Gunlock said. “I really do. It’s pretty special that they get to play together.”
State A Pairings
March 7-9, Butte Civic Center
Thursday
BOYS
9 a.m. — Butte Central (17-4) vs. Glendive (11-12)
10:30 a.m. — Lewistown (10-11) vs. Columbia Falls (14-8)
3:30 p.m. — Billings Central (19-2) vs. Dillon (17-5)
5 p.m. — Hamilton (19-2) vs. Havre (16-6)
GIRLS
Noon — Frenchtown (19-2) vs. Billings Central (20-2)
1:30 p.m. — Havre (18-3) vs. Browning (15-7)
6:30 p.m. — Miles City (18-3) vs. Dillon (18-4)
8 p.m. — Bigfork (20-1) vs. Lockwood (15-7)