We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Sophomore Sierra Swank leads the break during the 'Beeters semifinal contest Friday evening.
Brooke Nicholson drives hard to the basket for a bucket during the championship game Saturday night against Box Elder.
Brooke Elliot scores two of her 11 points against the Bears.
Abby Ellison knocks down two of her nine points against Fort Benton.
The Chinook Sugarbeeters are headed to the Northern C Divisional in Great Falls for the sixth straight season following a second place finish at the District 9C tournament this past weekend.
The 'Beeters opened play with 83-14 shellacking of the Hays/Lodge Pole Thunderbirds. They then went to the final second before securing a 47-46 win over the Fort Benton Longhorns to advance to the District 9C championship game for the fifth time in six years.
In the final the 'Beeters gave a great effort but fell in a hard fought contest to the top seeded Box Elder Bears72-61.
Chinook made sure their game was firing on all cylinders in the opener as they opened up a 32-6 entering the second and led 60-9 in earning a 83-14 first round win.
Senior Brooke Nicholson scored 22 in the win. Junior Kelsey Mathon added 14, sophomore Abby Ellison 10 and junior Nicole McCracken nine.
The 'Beeters had dominated the Longhorns in two regular season meetings but tournament time cranks up the intensity and anything can happen.
The Longhorns did something they hadn't done the first two meetings they held a lead and they kept it for three quarters.
Fort Benton led 9-6 entering the second quarter and pushed the lead to 21-16 by intermission.
The Longhorns extended the advantage to 11, 33-22 with 2:49 left in the third quarter and take a 35-28 lead into the fourth.
Nicholson scored after taking a hard foul with 6:32 left, to bring Chinook within four, 36-32. Moments later the senior tied the score at 38-38.
The 'Beeters had outscored the longhorns 16-5 over a six minute stretch but the final 4:04 would be played as tight as could be.
Fort Benton knocked down a triple to retake the lead but an old fashioned three point play from Ellison gave Chinook the lead, 43-41 with 1:47 left in the contest.
Fort Benton drained a pair of free throws to tie the game again at 43-43. Swank then buried a jumper with :56 for a 45-43 'Beeter advantage.
Junior Brooke Elliot's free throw gave Chinook a 46-44 lead with just :16 left on the game clock.
The Longhorns used a couple of time outs to set up their offense. Eventually scoring with just over two seconds remaining to make the score 46-46.
Many in the crowd were thinking overtime but an aggressive attack from Nicholson drew a foul with just :0.9 left in regulation.
Nicholson converted the second free throw giving the 'Beeters an incredible 47-46 come from behind win and punch their ticket the championship game.
Nicholson scored 14 points including the game winner and cleaned the glass with 10. rebounds.
Ellison finished with nine points and four rebounds and converted all five of her free throws, all of which were needed.
Swank was a major factor down the stretch and score nine points for the 'Beeters in the win while grabbing five rebounds as well. Elliot nearly had a double-double finishing with nine points and 10 rebounds in the win.
The 'Beeters were determined to make the Bears earn everything in the championship game and there great effort on the court did just that.
The Bears took the lead out of the gate and held a 18-10 advantage after eight minutes. They extended the lead to 39-28 by intermission, but these 'Beeters were not going away.
With the Bears up 55-45, Nicholson made a great steal and converted the layup to get the 'Beeters going. Swank then followed, getting a tough shot to fall and trimming the Bear lead to 55-49.
Swank then drained a pair from the charity stripe and Nicholson dropped in a floater in the lane and Chinook was within four 57-53. A Mathon deuce and a Swank free throw would make the score 59-56, however the 'Beeters could get no closer eventually falling 72-61.
Nicholson finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and six steals. Swank added 11 points and three steals while Elliot scored 11 and grabbed 11 rebounds for the 'Beeters.
The 'Beeters improve their record to 18-3 as they head to the Northern C.
Chinook will begin play Wednesday (Today) at 8:30 p.m. when they will take on the District 8C number one seed, Belt Huskies.
The top two teams from the Northern C will advance to the State Class Tournament March 10-12. The Class C Girls State Tournament will also being played at the Four Seasons in Greta Falls
The Northern C is being played at the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls. All Sugarbeeter games can be heard on KRYK 101.3 FM.
