GILLETTE, Wyo. — One Montana winning streak lives on.
The Montana girls racked up their 16th consecutive win in the Midland Roundtable's Montana-Wyoming All-Star Basketball Series on Friday night in Gillette. Montana leads the all-time series 42-13.
The Montana boys, on the other hand, are beginning a brand new streak. A year after Wyoming snapped Montana’s 22-game winning streak with a weekend sweep, the Treasure State all-stars exacted revenge in Friday night’s opening leg.
Saturday’s games in Lockwood are scheduled for 5 and 7 p.m.
Montana girls 91, Wyoming 80
The Treasure State gals continue to win.
Montana topped Wyoming 91-80 on Friday night in Gillette for its 16th consecutive win in the annual series. Wyoming hasn’t won since June 10, 2016.
Wyoming held the slimmest of margins at the break, 47-46, despite a scoring outburst from Huntley Project’s Paige Lofing, Montana’s 2025 Gatorade player of the year. Lofing scored 12 first-half points and assisted on several others to keep Montana in the game in the opening 20 minutes.
Montana kicked up the defensive effort in the second half, allowing just 15 third-quarter points en route to grabbing a 66-62 lead. Montana continued to put the clamps down in the fourth quarter to pull away for the win.
“Wyoming played way harder and were way more physical and got after us. We didn't adjust well, especially in the first quarter. We might have set a record with the amount of turnovers we had," Montana head coach Wes Keller said.
"I thought we slowed down in the second half and got the ball moving. Multiple times in the second half we got five consecutive stops which allowed us to extend our lead. ... Hopefully (Saturday) we'll defend better, communicate better and win a few more of those 50/50 balls that they got (Friday)."
Alli Glasscock had 23 points to lead Montana while Paige Lofing added 21. Elyn Bowers and Lauren Olsen led Wyoming with 17 points apiece. Jaden Meyer added 16.
“Everybody contributed in a positive fashion at some point that helped us build our lead. I'm happy with that. I told them, 'You might not have your best game tonight, but we've got tomorrow. Wyoming is going to be hungry and will come at us like they did tonight and we have to be able to handle it from the start,'" Keller said.
Keller improved to 18-1 all-time in the series.
Montana boys 102, Wyoming 90
The Treasure State is back on top of the Montana-Wyoming boys series.
Montana’s boys thrashed Wyoming 102-90 on Friday night in Gillette, snapping a brief two-game losing streak after ripping off 22 in a row.
“Revenge game,” Montana Gatorade player of the year Reynolds Johnston of Missoula Loyola said. “Wyoming is a great team. They can hit shots all over place.”
Montana built a 10-point lead at the end of the first quarter, which was punctuated by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Helena’s Tevin Wetzel.
The Montana lead grew in the second quarter, as Wyoming couldn’t keep pace with the Treasure State’s up-tempo attack. Montana led by as many as 19 in the opening half before taking a 57-40 lead into halftime.
Wyoming was able to get the game within 11, 74-63, on a basket by University of Wyoming commit Neil Summers with 1:30 remaining in the third quarter, but Montana punched back and promptly pushed the lead to 22 less than two minutes into the fourth quarter.
“We couldn’t be lackadaisical and had to keep our foot on the gas. We were having fun, but maybe we were having a little too much fun,” Johnston said. “I’m super competitive, but at the end of the day basketball is game and you’re supposed to have fun playing games.
Wetzel led Montana with 21 points. Wyoming Gatorade Player of the Year and University of Wyoming commit Neil Summers had 14 for the Cowboy State.”
Montana’s boys now leads the all-time series 68-29.
