GREAT FALLS — A unique situation pitted the same two schools against one another in both championship games of the Northern C divisional Saturday at Four Seasons Arena, as the boys and girls brackets had Belt facing Chester-Joplin-Inverness.
Belt boys 40, C-J-I 28
This was anticipated to be a defensive affair from start to finish, and it certainly lived up to that billing.
But after the game was tied 24-24 heading in to the fourth quarter, Belt's boys would outscore C-J-I by 12 in the final frame to win the Northern C, 40-28.
"I thought for the most part defensively we were pretty good," Belt coach Kyle Paulson said postgame. "We just felt like, OK, the lid is going to come off the basket at some point. Finally in that fourth quarter they made a couple plays defensively, saw it go through the basket in transition and then all of a sudden, you know, these guys can be explosive offensively."
WATCH: Belt boys, C-J-I girls win Northern C championships
As Paulson alluded, the bottom of the net was hard to find for both sides, as the Huskies shot 28.6% from the field and the Hawks 20.9%. One difference was the turnover battle, as Belt forced 18 while only giving it away nine times.
Kolin and Grahm Halley each delivered a crucial 10 points in the win, while Michael Gaylord added nine.
Belt advances to the Class C state tournament, while C-J-I will meet Box Elder in a challenge game Monday at 4 p.m.
C-J-I girls 56, Belt 45
After battling through adversity in a semifinal win over Box Elder and facing a deficit as much as eight on Saturday, Chester-Joplin-Inverness' girls outscored Belt by 14 points in the fourth quarter en route to a 56-45 championship-winning score.
"That has been the most impressive thing that has come out of this weekend," C-J-I coach Jordan Miller said afterward. "Especially because we were kind of able to go through the regular season a little bit unscathed. It really showed a true testament to girls' ability to be able to go down not once, but twice in games and come back."
The Hawks only scored five points in the first quarter, then trailed 25-18 at the break. But from there C-J-I took flight.
Led behind a 21-point, 11-rebound double-double for standout junior Brynn Kammerzell and 12 points from Scarlet Sundgren, the Hawks advance on to the Class C state tournament in Missoula.
Belt's Aaliyah Gaylord delivered 14 points, and her Huskies now face North Star on Monday in a challenge game at 5:30 p.m.
