Basketball teams finish out regular season with wins

The Broadus basketball teams played in their final two regular season games, over the weekend. Both the girls and boys teams traveled to Melstone on Friday, where they were faced with a formidable opponent.

Girls

Melstone got out to a lead mid-way through the 1st quarter, and kept the lead through the game on the Lady Hawks.

"We had trouble adjusting to their full court press, and it cost us," Lady Hawk Coach Kacey Stanley said of the game. Melstone scored 24 points off turnovers in the game, which had a final score of Melstone 64, Broadus 19.

Kiarah Coulter, who is still suffering from an ankle injury, did not play against Melstone.

Despite the loss, the Lady Hawks got a taste of what they're up against at tournaments, as they face the Melstone Lady Broncs this Wednesday (the night before this issue of the paper goes to newsstands) in the first round of District Tournaments in Miles City.

Stanley says that she has plans for new plays at tournaments, and tried out some of those plays on Saturday, for Senior Night at home against Terry. That evening, Coulter and Drane were honored as Seniors for their years of dedication to the team.

In a near reversal of the previous night's game, Broadus soundly beat Terry, 52-11, with an impressive 60 rebounds for the Broadus team. Kiarah Coulter returned for her final home game, leading the team with 12 points, 4 rebounds, an assist, and 6 steals. Oliveah Schaffer had 11 points, 5 rebounds and a steal, while Ashley Bilbrey contributed a solid performance with 9 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, and an assist.

On Sunday, the team made the trip to Miles City to watch the MCC Lady Pioneers play a home game, which Stanley said was a great learning experience for the team. The Broadus girls recognized plays being performed at a college level, and saw what happened when those plays were executed well – the Lady Pioneers are 25-0 this season.

Boys

The Broadus Hawk boys had a similar fate to the girls at Melstone, a fate which was fairly expected going into the game. Melstone's leading scorer, Brody Grebe, sat in the Top 10 All Time leading scorers in Montana state basketball history going into the weekend, and looked to move up in the rankings against Broadus.

Grebe showed why he's on that list – sinking 10 three pointers against Broadus, and eventually scoring 52 points on his final home game, as the Senior celebrated Parent's Night in Melstone. The 52 points, as well as the 10 three pointers were both school records for Melstone.

According to Broadus Coach Mike Richards, Grebe now sits at 6th all time in the scoring books, with tournaments still to go. The All-Time leading scorer, Reece Gliko of Highwood, had 2763 points on the season, a score which is unlikely to be beat anytime soon, as the second-place record is 2430.

"It didn't go well for us at Melstone," Broadus Coach Mike Richards said of the 29-81 loss. Despite the loss, Broadus was able to get the younger Hawks some playing time; Wyatt Gee had 9 points on the game.

On Saturday night, Broadus faced Terry at home, where Senior Hawks Kashus Giacometto, Clay LaPlant, and Alessandro Galieni were honored.

"We played sloppy, but pulled out the victory," Richards said of the game. The Hawks battled illness throughout the week leading up to the games, with 4 athletes out at different times during practice, which no doubt affected their performance.

Despite the illness, Broadus was still able to pull out the win, 56-49. Tayden Gee led the Hawks with an impressive 23 points and 16 rebounds.

The Hawks finish the season 7-7 in the conference, which according to Richards is more wins than the Hawks have had in conference play in the last three seasons combined.

The team looks healthy going into tournaments, which they'll need as they face Jordan in a Wednesday night game, in Miles City.

Here are stats from the weekend games: https://www.powderriverexaminer.com/home/customer_files/stats/bballstats-10.pdf