BILLINGS — The Treasure State's dominance continues.
The Montana All-Star basketball teams dismantled Wyoming on Saturday inside the Lockwood High School gym to complete a weekend sweep of the Cowboy State.
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Montana girls 100, Wyoming 40
There was no let up in the Montana girls after Friday night’s record-breaking 54-point margin of victory.
The Montana All-Stars opened up a 20-0 lead before Wyoming scored its first points of the game at the free throw line with 1:27 remaining in the first quarter. The Treasure State standouts rolled to a 100-40 win, a new record margin of victory.
“I just think it goes to show you what kind of group of kids we put together. They’re all very competitive,” Montana coach Wes Keller said. “I gave them kudos. It’s human nature when you get a big lead to let up. Everybody watching saw that they played extremely hard on the defensive end until the final buzzer.”
Again the defensive intensity from the tip set the tone. Wyoming had several turnovers in the opening minutes that led to transition baskets for Montana. Montana led 48-17 at halftime.
“All-star games, everybody can score the basketball and everybody is their team’s best player. What it comes down to is how many stops can you get in a row and can you rebound,” Keller said. “I thought we did that and I thought we had relentless pressure in the full court and the half court. Just proud of them.”
Gallatin’s Jada Davis and Frenchtown’s Mason Quinn led Montana with 17 points apiece. Billings Central’s Annika Stergar added 15.
Montana’s lead in the all-time series is now 44-14.
Montana boys 83, Wyoming 68
The Montana winning streak has now moved to four in a row.
The Montana All-Stars pulled away from a pesky Wyoming team in the second half en route to an 83-68 win for a weekend sweep of the Cowboy State stars.
“I think we started really playing as a team and passing the ball more. The first three quarters we were kind of shooting the ball within the first 10 seconds of the shot clock," Billings West's Cash Rice said. "We started swinging it more and getting guys open looks and it was pretty much easy from there."
Wyoming led late in the second quarter before Montana closed the half on an 11-2 run to grab a 44-36 lead entering the locker room.
Wyoming hung around long into the second half, as Montana finally pushed the lead into double figures for good midway through the fourth quarter.
“Ninety percent of coaches want you to go out and play hard, play defense," Rice said. "We just had to come out and play as hard as we could on defense and offense."
Billings Central’s Darcy Merchant led Montana with 15 points. Rice added 12.
The Montana boys now lead the all-time series 71-29. Saturday's game was the 100th in the 50-year-old rivalry.
