MILES CITY — The Lustre Christian boys and Circle girls were crowned Eastern C divisional basketball champions Saturday night in Miles City.
The Lions handed the Scobey boys their first loss of the season, while Circle's girls beat Scobey for the fourth time this year.
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Lustre Christian boys 55, Scobey 50
Lustre Christian has put an end to Scobey’s bid for an unbeaten campaign.
The Lions topped the Spartans 55-50 to claim the Eastern C divisional title and hand Scobey its first loss of the season.
"I think we just believe in each other," Lustre coach Randy Reddig said. "There's no way you can beat a team the quality of Scobey that hasn't been even touched this year without doing it together.
"They didn't maybe have their best shooting night, which helped us, obviously, but a lot of grit from the guys and belief in each other."
Lustre, which had its state tournament spot secured with Circle’s third-place finish, jumped on Scobey early and built an 11-point lead in the first half before leading 28-22 going into the locker room.
The Spartans answered in the third quarter and eventually took a 35-34 lead after a 3 from Bram Handran, but the Lions punched back with their own 13-2 run to push the lead back to 10, 47-37.
"Best on best, and luckily we came out tonight. It was a hard-fought win," Reddig said. "We've had a month stretch where we haven't shot well, and we have some really good shooters. Finally we saw some go through two nights ago, and we've been rolling with it. Momentum is a beautiful thing."
Lustre’s Cam Reddig led all scorers with 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Handran had an 18-point, 13-rebound double-double for Scobey. The Spartans shot just 22.2% from the field, while Lustre shot 44.4%.
Lustre advances to the Class C state tournament and will play Chester-Joplin-Inverness in the opening round, while Scobey will play Circle in a challenge game to determine the Eastern C’s No. 2 seed.
Circle girls 25, Scobey 23
The Circle girls won a slugfest against Scobey on Saturday night to claim the Eastern C divisional title.
The Wildcats topped the Spartans 25-23 in a game in which neither team shot north of 20% from the floor.
"We played four times, and all the games were close. We totally expected this to be a grinder. We steadily got her done," Circle coach Scott Nasner said.
Circle led 5-2 after the first quarter but stretched that to 12-6 by halftime, as the two teams combined to shoot 7 of 51 from the floor in the opening 16 minutes.
Circle pushed its lead to 20-11 in the third quarter, but Scobey whittled it to 23-20 with just 3:11 to play. A 3-pointer by McKenna Nieskens pulled Scobey within two, 25-23, with under a minute to play. The Spartans, however, were unable to convert on multiple game-tying and go-ahead looks in the final seconds.
"We take pride in our defense. Tonight we would have liked to have had our offense going a lot better, but we'll work on that for the next weekend," Nasner said.
Allie Kountz and Laura Guldborg led Circle with eight points apiece. Kayla Carney had a game-high 13 for Scobey.
For the game, the two sides combined to shoot 18 of 102 from the field.
Circle and Scobey will both represent the Eastern C at next weekend's state tournament in Missoula. It's Circle's first trip to the state tournament since 2015.
