Lockwood holds off Browning in A semifinal
BILLINGS — The burst belonged to the Lockwood Lions Friday.
With Kingston Hugs and Kobe Blake leading the way, Lockwood ran out to a 28-10 lead and held off Browning 56-47 in the State A boys basketball semifinals at First Interstate Arena, setting up a title tilt with defending champion Dillon on Saturday.
The Beavers (22-1) used a huge second half to beat Billings Central 55-38 in the first semifinal.
Browning got the game in range by halftime but couldn’t catch the Class A newcomer: Lockwood (21-2) is in the championship in just its fourth year as a program.
The Runnin’ Indians (15-7) fell into a loser-out game with Northwest A rival Ronan at 10:30 a.m., on this same court.
Lockwood 56, Browning 47
Four points from Jude Reevis and a bucket from Tristan Crawford had Browning off to a nice start, but then Kingston Hugs hit a 3-pointer to knot the game at 8-all and spark a 12-0 Lions run.
Hugs, who had 12 points, capped it with a reverse layup that put his team up 17-8.
Blake stepped up in the second quarter, scoring nine points in an 11-0 Lockwood surge. When he got a shooter’s bounce on a 3-pointer at the 5:40 mark, the Lions led 28-10 at 5:40 of the second quarter.
Browning got out of its press and went to a stingy man-to-man defense and closed the gap to 29-19 at intermission. But the trademark burst by the Runnin’ Indians never came.
“We had to go rely on our man-to-man, and it paid off,” Browning coach DJ Fish said. “But the margin was a little bit too big. We could have got it down to four but we had that illegal screen. An opportunity to get momentum slipped away.”
It was 31-24 when that call happened: Browning hit a corner three that didn’t count.
Lockwood got a bucket form Jude Barnett on its ensuing possession and then got a three from Gabe Ronquillo to go up 36-24 at 3:35 of the third quarter.
“You could tell they put in their homework and scouted us very well,” Fish said. “Every movement we made they were on top of it and took all of our keys away. Compliments ot their coaching staff and players for putting together a good game.”
A dunk from Zicciah Callison-Blake gave Lockwood its biggest lead, 50-36, with 4:00 left in the game. Browning got as close as 50-43 when Royce Mad Plume converted a three-point play with 2:23 left, but Blake answered that with a hoop and harm of his own. He finished with 22 points.
Reevis, guarded much of the night by Callison-Blake, managed 10 points. Noah Butterfly had 11 to lead Browning, which has to recover in time to face Ronan. The teams split two regular-season games.
“That’s the hardest part is being able to wake up in the morning, shake it off and realize we’ve got a chance to bring some hardware home,” Fish said. “That’s the new goal. Play Saturday nights in March is still there.”
Browning 10 9 17 11 - 47
Lockwood 17 12 17 10 - 56
BROWNING —’Jude Reevis 2-14 6-7 10, Tristan Crawford 1-3 0-2 2, Shayde St. Goddard 2-4 0-0 4, Joshua Skunk Cap 3-7 1-1 8, Noah Butterfly 3-4 3-4 10, Randy Running Rabbit 0-1 1-2 1, Royce Mad Plume 3-6 1-1 7, Layton Wing 0-1 0-0 0, Roy Mad Plume 0-0 0-0 0, Rodale Dog Taking Gun 0-0 0-0 0, Reis Reevis 1-1 2-2 4. Totals 15-41 14-19 47.
LOCKWOOD — Zicciah Callison-Blake 4-10 1-2 10, Jude Barnett 1-4 0-0 2, Nate Davis 1-4 0-0 2, Gabe Ronquillo 3-6 2-2 8, Kobe Blake 8-12 5-9 22, Kingston hugs 5-6 2-3 12, Raider Kalfell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-42 6-13 56.
3-point goals — Browning 3-10 (Butterfly 2-2, Skunk Cap 1-1, Royce Mad Plume 0-1, Wing 0-1, J.Reevis 0-5), Lockwood 6-13 (Ronquillo 2-2, Hugs 2-3, Callison-Blake 1-2, Blake 1-3, Davis 0-1, Barnett 0-2). Rebounds — Browning 23 (J.Reevis 6, St. Goddard 6), Lockwood 25 (Barnett 10). Fouls — Browning 13, Lockwood 15. Fouled out — Skunk Cap. Turnovers — Browning 9, Lockwood 13.
Dillon 55, Billings Central 38
Kyler Engellant was a force the second half, doing most of his damage — 13 points and nine rebounds — after the Beavers quickly made up a 21-14 halftime deficit.
Whatever was wrong in the first half, and part of it was that Engellant hadn’t scored, Dillon solved it.
A steal and three-point play by Braxtyn Turney put the Beavers up 23-22 just two minutes into the third quarter; after Darcy Merchant, Jr. scored for Central, Engellant answered inside and the Beavers were on their way.
Engellant hit two 3-pointers before the third quarter ended, the latter putting his team up 34-26. Dillon took that lead into the fourth and pushed it to 51-34 on two Carter Curnow free throws with under a minute remaining.
Merchant, the Rams’ leading scorer, had 13 points. Howie Martin was next with six.
Curnow had a game-high 16 points to go with six rebounds for Dillon. He hit six free throws in the fourth quarter and finished 9 of 12 from the line.