Broadus Basketball Teams Compete At Districts, Boys move on to Divisional Tournament

Last week, the District Basketball Tournament was held from Wednesday through Saturday in Miles City. Here are the results for the Broadus teams.

Girls

The Broadus Lady Hawks finished out their season at the District Tournament last week, in Miles City. The Lady Hawks went into the tournament in the 7th seat, at 4-10 on the regular season, which pitted them against Melstone, seated second at 12-2 on the regular season.

In the week prior to the tournament, Lady Hawk Head Coach Kacey Stanley said the team worked hard on their defense, especially working on methods to try and slow down Melstone's Draya Wacker.

The Melstone game on Wednesday evening would be the first tournament game for many of the Lady Hawks, and though a large contingent of Broadus fans cheered from the stands, the young team fell behind early in the first quarter, finishing the first quarter behind 2-11.

Broadus was not able to get its offense in gear, while Melstone was able to capitalize on a number of steals and deflections, to go into halftime leading Broadus 28-9.

The Lady Hawks could not come up with an answer for Wacker, who finished the game with 29 points. Final score: Melstone 58, Broadus 19.

The loss to Melstone put Broadus into a loser out game against Jordan on Thursday; Jordan having lost to Ekalaka on Wednesday evening.

"We played a lot better against Jordan," Coach Stanley commented. "What got us was a lot of missed free throws."

The Lady Hawks went 42% for free throws on the game, sinking 16/38. This number, along with shooting 28% from the field, made just enough of a difference for the Lady Hawks, as they lost the game 38-45, despite battling back in the fourth quarter to nearly tie the game.

"We went down swinging," Kacey said.

The loss put Broadus out of the tournament, and capped off the careers of Senior Lady Hawks Kylee Drane and Kiarah Coulter. Stanley spoke of the graduating Seniors: "I want to thank Kylee and Kiarah for all their years of hard work. I also want to thank the community for coming out to support us over the season."

Kiarah Coulter finished the season with 183 points, while Kylee had 84 points and 93 rebounds.When looking to the future, the Lady Hawks have a number of up and coming players who will excel in years to come, with many 8th graders gaining varsity experience this season. Coach Stanley asserted: "Be on the lookout for us in the future."

Ekalaka, Wibaux, Melstone, and Northern Cheyenne moved on from the tournament to the Southern C Divisional Tournament, this week in Laurel.

Boys

The Broadus Hawk Boys team entered the District Tournament last week in Miles City in the 5th seat, with a 7-7 conference record.

In their first game at tournaments last Wednesday, the Hawks faced Jordan, a 4th seat with an 8-6 record. Broadus had beat Jordan 65-60 on their only previous meeting of the season, and looked to repeat the win in Miles City.

The Hawks came out scoring early on, led by Beau Kuhbacher's long range shooting. After the first quarter, the Hawks led 26-10, and kept a good lead through the second quarter, going into the locker rooms up 42-31.

Towards the end of the third quarter, Jordan's offense really came alive, and threatened the Hawks greatly in the 4th quarter, pulling to within one point of the lead.

Midway through the 4th, the Hawks once again pulled ahead due to some great shooting from the field and from the free throw line. Final score: Hawks 79, Jordan 65.

Broadus Head Coach Mike Richards spoke of the game: "We had a great game offensively, shooting 47% from the field, and the team as a whole went 12 of 18 from three-point land. We also went 21 of 27 from the free throw line, for a 77.8% free throw percentage."

Beau Kuhbacher turned in an impressive performance against Jordan, going 6 of 9 for three pointers, and finishing the game with 28 points. Marcus Mader scored 17 and went 10 of 11 from the free throw line, as well as contributing 6 assists. Tayden Gee had a good night, with 13 points and 13 rebounds. Johnny Richards went 3 for 4 on three pointers, while Kashus Giacometto and Clay LaPlant both had solid performances.

The win against Jordan put the Hawks up against a very tough Melstone team, on Friday. Going into the game, Broadus knew its chances of winning were slim, and Coach Richards strategically thought towards future games, subbing out a number of his starters in order to prevent injury.

Broadus fell to Melstone 86-17, placing them in a must win game against Terry, on Saturday morning.

The team and staff stayed in Miles City Friday night, and woke up early to prepare for Terry. The Hawks had beat the Terriers twice this season, but in living up to their namesake, the Terriers tenaciously fought through both previous games, and would prove to be a tough opponent on Saturday.

Broadus started out in the lead, but Terry regained the lead in the second quarter, maintaining it into the fourth quarter. The Hawks eventually sealed the win, and thus a trip to the Divisional Tournament, with a close 60-57 win.

Beau Kuhbacher's three point shooting would once again become a major deciding factor for the Hawks. Beau was on fire from long range, sinking 8, and finishing with 26 points. Tayden Gee had 17 points on the evening, with 13 rebounds. Off the bench, Aaron Rogers did a great job of rebounding and defending, which sometimes doesn't show in the stat book, but still contributed greatly to the team's win.

"We did a great job scoring, and managed to get through with the win," Richards said.

Because four teams traveled to Divisionals, the Hawks were now moving on for the first time since the 2013-14 season. Before that happened, Broadus still had to battle Ekalaka to determine 3rd and 4th place seating in Laurel.

"The Ekalaka game was a great game for fans to watch," Richards commented.

The entire game see-sawed back and forth, with many lead changes.

"We didn't panic, and hung in there," Mike said.

At the end of 4 quarters, the score was tied, 42-42. The game was once again tied with 40 seconds left in overtime, and Broadus had the ball.

Clay LaPlant looked to drive to the hoop off a ball screen, but had the ball stolen by Turner Tooke, which he capitalized on with a lay-up, winning the game for Ekalaka, 47-45.

Richards spoke of the loss: "I should've called a time-out on that last possession, but I didn't. That was on me."

Overall, Richards was pleased with his team's performance. This is the first time we've been to Divisionals in 5 years."

Clay had an excellent night shooting, with 21 points.

Broadus will face Plenty Coups on Thursday morning, a tough team which is 19-2 in the regular season, and ranked 7th in the state, as of February 12th.

Melstone, Ekalaka, and Wibaux also move on from our District.

Click on the following link for stats from the tournament: https://www.powderriverexaminer.com/home/customer_files/stats/bballstats-11-1.jpg