Basketball teams take on St. Labre, Busby

The Broadus basketball teams traveled to St. Labre on Friday, then hosted Northern Cheyenne Tribal School (Busby) on Saturday. The varsity games resulted in losses for the girls, and a split for the boys.

Boys

The St. Labre game started out slow for Broadus, with the Hawks falling behind in the first quarter, and going into halftime with a seemingly insurmountable 11 point deficit, down 19-30.

Broadus Head Coach Mike Richards commented that when the team went into halftime, he assured his players they could come back, though he figured it would be sometime in the fourth quarter when they could retake the lead.

Much to Richard's joy, the Hawks came out of the locker room fired up and ready to go ahead in the score, which they did in the first four minutes of the third quarter.

From there, the lead see-sawed back and forth through the fourth quarter, with St. Labre eventually pulling ahead at the end to win 59-55.

One key to the Hawks' loss came from an overabundance of turnovers – 35 on the game, many coming as a result of St. Labre's full court press. An additional issue was three crucial missed free throws in the fourth quarter. Such has been the story in many of the Hawk losses this season – turnovers and missed free throws.

Tayden Gee led the Hawks in scoring with 17, followed by Marcus Mader with 15 and Beau Kuhbacher with 11.

For St. Labre, Donovan Plain Bull and Vince Brady each scored 14, with Tegan Medicinebull landing 10. Medicinebull put up 27 points in the Broadus/St. Labre game earlier this season.

The JV Hawks fell 40-56 against St. Labre's JV.

Broadus next hosted Busby, on Saturday. Broadus went into the game 5-4 compared to Northern Cheyenne's 2-7 record. Coach Richards made the comment that the game was one Broadus needed to win, and the Hawks didn't disappoint.

Beau Kuhbacher came out on fire, sinking three 3 pointers in the first quarter, and stayed on fire throughout the game, netting 22 points in total.

"Beau Kuhbacher, Marcus Mader, and Tayden Gee all had solid games," Coach Richards commented. "We even put Beau inside in the high post position for part of the game, where he did well. Tayden played well, shooting 8 for 13, and Johnny Richards shot well from the free throw line, sinking 7 of 8. Overall we had a good night."

The Hawks had a good night indeed, going up early and keeping the lead throughout, to win 76-42.

In last week's paper we noted that JV games had been scheduled for Northern Cheyenne. Before the games began Saturday, Northern Cheyenne made the call that they would not have JV games. Richards tells us that a combination of sickness and injury on the Northern Cheyenne side prevented their JV teams from fielding full squads, thus only Varsity games took place.

Broadus travels to Custer/ Hysham on Thursday, to face a 2-8 Boys team, and then hosts a 9-3 Jordan team on Friday, with action beginning at 2:30 with Girls JV, followed by Boys JV tentatively planned for 4, then 5:30 for Girls Varsity, and 7 for Boys Varsity.

Jordan is coming off a 56-37 win over Ekalaka, so the Jordan game looks to be a tough one for the Hawks.

Girls

The Broadus Girls went into St. Labre on a three game win streak, having beaten three conference rivals recently: Custer/ Hysham, Terry, and Plevna. The St. Labre Girls are a tough Class B team – Broadus Head Coach Kacey Stanley said they are state ranked, and the young Broadus team would have their work cut out for them against the more experienced St. Labre offense.

"We knew it would be a really tough game, and we went in with certain goals we wanted to meet, regardless of the outcome of the score," she said.

Broadus went down early, scoring four points in the first quarter to St. Labre's 21. St. Labre matched their score in the secord quarter, with Broadus adding ten, to go into the locker rooms for halftime with a score of Broadus 14, St. Labre 42.

Broadus would only add 3 points in the second half, for a final score of Broadus 17, St. Labre 61.

St. Labre top scorers included Priscilla Flatmouth with 17, and Teegan Ewing with 13.

Mia Mader and Aspen Krantz led in scoring for Broadus, with 4 a piece.

Broadus shot a dismal 9.8% from the field in the loss to St. Labre, but that performance was not repeated on Saturday against Busby, as the Lady Hawks put up significantly better stats.

The Busby game stayed close through much of the first half, with the score tied 16-16 in the second quarter. In the waning minutes of the first half, Northern Cheyenne started to pull away, and kept adding to their lead until the fourth quarter. Broadus put up 47 points on the game, to Northern Cheyenne's 72. The loss was in part due to 44 turnovers for Broadus.

Zeason Schaffer led the Lady Hawks in scoring with 13 points against Busby.

The Lady Hawks now sit at 4-7 in conference games, which puts them in sixth out of nine teams. The Lady Hawks will have their work cut out for them this Thursday as they face Custer/Hysham, currently sitting at 4-8. The first time around, Broadus won 41-32.

Stanley said her team has been training to handle Custer/ Hysham, and are hoping to come out to an early lead.

On Friday, Broadus will face a 5-7 Jordan team, for their first meeting of the season. Stanley noted that Jordan is a quick team, and it should make for a good game.

Melstone currently leads the conference in both the Boys and Girls basketball, with 11-0 records for both teams.

Here are the St. Labre and Busby game stats for Broadus:

https://www.powderriverexaminer.com/home/customer_files/stats/2.6_stats-1