State C basketball: Circle beats the buzzer, sets up championship sequel with Denton-Geyser-Stanford-Geraldine

MISSOULA — It's semifinal night of the Class C girls basketball state tournament.

Denton-Geyser-Stanford-Geraldine and Chester-Joplin-Inverness will meet in the first semi at 6 p.m., and Circle and Melstone will follow at 7:30 p.m. We'll have updates, scores, highlights and other observations from those two games, so follow along in our blog below. The most-recent updates will be at the top.

The boys semifinal round was Thursday night. Scobey and Lustre Christian posted impressive wins to set up an all-Eastern C championship on Saturday. In case you missed anything, here's our blog from Thursday's action.

*** Updated scores and pairings ***

- Slim Kimmel, Derek Joseph and Kyle Hansen

9:57 p.m. | Final update

Phew! What a pair of semifinal games at the Class C girls basketball state tournament. Denton-Geyser-Stanford-Geraldine ran past Chester-Joplin-Inverness 62-40 to keep its undefeated record intact, and Circle stunned Melstone at the buzzer for a 47-45 win.

The Bearcats and Wildcats will meet in Saturday's state championship after also meeting for the state volleyball title last November.

Make sure you check below for updates and highlights from both games and look through our photo gallery here.

That'll do it for us here at Day 3 of the State C basketball tournaments. We'll be back on for Saturday's championship games, but we'll continue to update scores and pairings throughout the morning.

WATCH HIGHLIGHTS OF THE GIRLS SEMIFINAL GAMES:

Girls Semifinal 2: Circle 47, Melstone 45

9:36 p.m. | Quotes and stats

Circle senior Madeline Moline and freshman Lily Beery take us through the final sequence, which saw Moline miss the initial shot and Beery get the offensive rebound and putback for the game winner, and set the table for the state championship game.

Beery: "I just saw Madeline go up for the lay-up, and I saw the ball miss, so I just went up, grabbed it and shot it."

Moline: "So happy. I can't believe I missed it, but it worked perfect. Can't complain, a win's a win. I've been saying that — like district championship, ugliest game ever, (but) a win's a win."

Beery, with Circle fans chanting, "That's our freshman": "It feels pretty good. Since we were in (the championship) for volleyball and won it, now we're going back for basketball, so hopefully we win it."

Moline: "It's D-G-S again. A lot of familiar faces, we know what to expect. Just play our game, play hard."

Beery finished with 13 points and Moline had 12. Maggie Eike led Melstone with 30 points. The Broncs will play Scobey in a loser-out game at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Circle and D-G-S-G will play for the title at 8:30 p.m. Saturday. The Wildcats and Bearcats met for the State C volleyball title last November, with Circle winning in four sets.

9:18 p.m. | At the buzzer!

Circle's Lily Beery gets the offensive rebound and beats the buzzer to send the Wildcats to the state championship game. Circle beats Melstone 47-45.

9:12 p.m. | Close down the stretch

A Maggie Eike four-point play brings Melstone within 44-43. After Madeline Moline split a pair of free throws for Circle, the Wildcats lead 45-43 with 28.7 seconds left. Melstone timeout with the ball.

9:03 p.m. | Circle surge

Circle went on an 8-0 run to start the fourth and take a 41-34 lead, which might have been the largest margin in the game. Maggie Eike answered with a three-point play on the other end for Melstone, so it's 41-37 Circle with 4:24 to play. The Broncs have the ball out of the timeout.

Officials gave the players a warning to cool it with the shoving when battling for rebounds and then just had a lengthy conversation among themselves during the timeout.

8:54 p.m. | One-point game going to the fourth

Circle's Madeline Moline beats the buzzer on an offensive rebound and putback, but Melstone has a 34-33 lead going to the fourth. This game has been close throughout, so why not eight more minutes of back-and-forth action to determine a berth in the state championship game?

8:47 p.m. | Third-quarter update

Circle's Madeline Moline hit a tough, off-balance bucket in the key that pushed the Wildcats ahead 30-26, but Melstone got a fast-break lay-up from, I think, Emma Myhre. After a Circle free throw, it's 31-28 in favor of the Wildcats with 2:45 to go in the third.

8:27 p.m. | Halftime update

Circle leads Melstone 23-19 at halftime. Maggie Eike has 11 points for the Broncs to lead all scorers. Kate Nasner, Allie Kountz and Lily Beery each have six points for Circle. Neither team has played more than six players, according to the official stats. Four players — Circle's Madeline Moline and Melstone's Eike, Belle Collins and Abby Boyd — have played all 16 minutes.

8:16 p.m. | Maggie Eike

Melstone's Maggie Eike has NBA range on her 3-pointer. She just splashed a deep on to tie it up with Circle at 15-15, if the scoreboard is to be believed. Four-plus minutes to go in the second quarter.

8:07 p.m. | First-quarter update

We're having issues on the scoreboard — at one point Melstone had 109 points. The Broncs actually have eight and trail Circle 13-8 as we get going in the second quarter.

* * *

7:54 p.m. | Photo update

Our Kyle Hansen has his initial photo gallery published. He'll keep adding to it throughout the evening.

Melstone and Circle are under way in the second semifinal. The Wildcats lead 5-2 in the early going.

* * *

Girls Semifinal 1: Denton-Geyser-Stanford-Geraldine 62, Chester-Joplin-Inverness 40

7:51 p.m. | Quotes

Denton-Geyser-Stanford-Geraldine coach Beau Smith on his team's second-half performance:

"We gave up 11 points in the second half again tonight. We talked at halftime, we can lean on our D. We weren't hitting shots that first half. Second half we knocked some shots down, and things kind of started going our way. The girls kept working, too."

"They had a lot of fun the second half," coach Smith added. "That first game (Thursday), we were tight, it was real obvious. I think we were playing not to lose that one. Tonight, maybe it was having a familiar opponent we saw earlier, I don't know, but I think the girls are just getting looser every game we play. They have fun. We have great bench energy most nights. It was just a matter of us finally knocking some shots down, because we didn't hit any (Thursday) night, either."

Kyle Hansen / MTN Sports

7:33 p.m. | Final score

D-G-S-G advances to the championship game with a 62-40 win over C-J-I. The Bearcats allowed the Hawks to score just 11 points after halftime.

BriElla Becker finished with 20 points for D-G-S-G, and Ella Smith had 15. Brynn Kammerzell had 20 to lead C-J-I.

7:22 p.m. | D-G-S-G closing in on championship berth

The Bearcats just hit back-to-back 3-pointers to go up 53-40. I think the first was from Kady Myllymaki, the second was from BriElla Becker walking into a trailer 3. Becker now fouled on a 3-point attempt. She made just 1 of 3 at the line, but D-G-S-G leads 54-40 with 3:15 to go.

7:07 p.m. | Third-quarter update

Was just telling Kyle Hansen, who has joined us at State C after working the Big Sky Conference basketball tournaments in Boise, that the officials for both the boys and girls at this tournament have let a lot of physicality go. It hasn't appeared to bother the players, who have seemed to increase their intensity and aggressiveness to match what the refs are permitting. Bearcats lead 41-32 late in the third.

6:51 p.m. | Stats update

D-G-S-G forced 12 C-J-I turnovers in the first half and turned them into 15 points. BriElla Becker has a game-high 15 points for the Bearcats. Brynn Kammerzell has 14 to lead the Hawks. Both teams are shooting over 50%.

6:45 p.m. | Halftime update

The Bearcats' defense is just relentless. They're constantly pressuring C-J-I everywhere on the court, and they have quick hands to force turnovers they can turn into offense. Still, the Hawks have hung in behind Brynn Kammerzell. A three-point play by Kammerzell and a 3 by Mariah Ramberg brought C-J-I within 30-29, and the Bearcats will take a 32-29 lead into halftime.

6:30 p.m. | First-quarter update

After one, D-G-S-G leads C-J-I 15-11. Watching the Bearcats' Ella and Emma Smith, you can tell they're ranch kids by how physical and aggressive they play. They'd make for a pretty good nucleus on a flag football team!

6:15 p.m. | D-G-S-G and C-J-I under way

D-G-S-G, the lone unbeaten team remaining in Class C girls basketball, scored seven seconds into the game, but C-J-I has since taken an 8-4 lead with 5:15 to play in the first quarter.

5:53 p.m. | Early Friday update

There were four loser-out games on Friday, with the Scobey and Belt girls posting early wins and the Belt and Winnett-Grass Range boys following suit in the afternoon. Here are the scores from those four games:

Girls

• Scobey 41, West Yellowstone 39
• Belt 57, Drummond 49

Boys

• Belt 60, Chester-Joplin-Inverness 30
• Winnett-Grass Range 55, Manhattan Christian 49

The Scobey and Belt girls will play loser-out games Saturday morning, while the Belt and Winnett-Grass Range boys will play for the third-place trophy at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Also, I continued to try to endear myself to the Scobey community this week and had some fun talking with them about making the 500-mile trip to Missoula for the state tournaments. Being a Winnett native myself, I know long drives are nothing new for Montanans, especially those folks out east, but a nine-plus-hour drive is still a long time to sit in a car! You can watch and read that story here.