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
7:54 p.m. | Photo update
Kyle 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."
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.
