Hawks Play at Divisional Tourney

The Broadus Hawk Varsity team finished out their season last week at the Southern C Divisional Tournament, in Miles City.

The Hawks went into the tournament coming off a huge upset against previously undefeated Melstone at the District tournament. Broadus would eventually take second at Districts, losing to Jordan in the Championship.

The second place seeding from Districts meant the Hawks' first matchup at the Divisional tourney was against District 6C's third ranked team, Reed Point/Rapelje, which took place last Wednesday, March 4, at 7:30 PM in Miles City.

Broadus went out to an early lead against the Reed Point/Rapelje Renegades, and though one of their mascots, a shark reminiscent of "Left Shark" from the 2015 Super Bowl Half-time show tried its best to motivate the team, Broadus went on to win handily, 59-36.

Four Broadus players scored double digits in the game – Marcus Mader had 14, Tayden Gee 13, Johnny Richards 12, and Dillon Gee 10.

Next up was the semi-finals on March 5th, against Plenty Coups. Broadus Head Coach Mike Richards told us that Plenty Coups had consistently been ranked around 8th through 10th in the state all year, but Broadus had already knocked off the #4 state ranked team once (Melstone), so Plenty Coups should have been beatable.

The Hawks went out to a lead in the first quarter, with several Plenty Coups players getting into early foul trouble. One of Plenty Coups' star players was injured in the first half with an ankle injury, and though he was able to return later in the game, the scales had tipped in the Hawks' direction. Unfortunately, Broadus did not capitalize on their chances, missing shot after shot. Plenty Coups was able to take the lead in the 4th quarter and win the game 46-40.

Broadus had an effective field goal percentage of 26.4% the game, a season low for the team. Coach Richards told us that he had been informed the 46 points made by Plenty Coups was their lowest scoring game of the year, though we were not able to verify this information.

The loss put Broadus into the loser-out bracket, and made the path to State a tough one. Broadus would need to win two games to put them in third place, then hope the losing team in the championship was not Plenty Coups, in order to force a challenge game.

The hoped-for timeline did not materialize, as Broadus lost to the Bridger Scouts on Friday. Broadus kept the score close and even led 45-44 at one point in the 4th quarter, but shaky performances from the free throw line came back to bite the Hawks. The team went 13 for 26 from the free throw line in the 63-56 loss to Bridger.

Thus the Hawks' season came to an end, with an 11 and 13 overall record including tournaments, an improvement on the 10/14 season last year.

District 4C teams dominated at the Southern C, with all the teams moving on to State hailing from the 4C. Jordan placed first for the Boys, while Melstone beat Plenty Coups in a challenge game on Monday to take second and move on. In the Girls bracket, Ekalaka took first, with Melstone nabbing second. The combined state tournament takes place this week, in Missoula.

An interesting anecdote from the tournament: 770 KATL radio announcer Kent Koester, a Broadus Alum, has been a long-time announcer for tournaments occurring in Miles City. Sometime back Kent spoke with Beau Kuhbacher about starting him out in the broadcasting booth. In the Melstone/Wibaux games, Beau made his radio broadcast debut, announcing the plays late in the game. Beau told us he was excited for the opportunity, and listeners may hear his voice calling the plays next season.

Next week we will have a full wrap up of season stats and where this year's team ranks against some other historical Broadus teams, information on the players voted to the All-Conference teams, as well as season stats on the Lady Hawks.

Here are the Broadus stats from the tourney: https://www.powderriverexaminer.com/home/customer_files/stats/2020_divisional_bball.jpg