Broadus teams are third in conference

With two weekends of games left in the regular season, both the girls and boys varsity basketball teams sit third in the conference standings.

This weekend, the teams will host Custer/Hysham on Friday, and travel to Jordan on Saturday, while in the final weekend of the regular season, Broadus will travel to Melstone on February 12th, and host Terry on the 13th.

Here's a roundup of last week's games.

Girls

The Lady Hawks hosted Plevna last Tuesday. Broadus had previously played in Plevna only a few days before, and Broadus Heach Coach Ashley Emmons wanted to make sure Plevna wasn't able to enact revenge for the loss on their home court.

Emmons commented: "We played really well at Plevna, and they didn't play to their potential, so I prepared our girls to see a tougher team here in Broadus. Sure enough, when Plevna took the court in Broadus they played much better."

Plevna outscored the Lady Hawks in the first quarter, 10-4, but Emmons was able to rally her team for a big comeback in the second quarter, going into the half up 26-19. From there, it was all Broadus, as the Lady Hawks won the game 48-31.

"As a team, we've been finding out what works for us as we progress through the season, so when we find ourselves behind , I'll call a time out, we reaccess the situation, and find what needs to change to regain the lead. That's something we've really improved on throughout the season," Emmons said.

Abi Krantz led the Lady Hawks in scoring with 15 points, going 3 for 4 from the foul line. Mia Mader had 9 points, along with 7 steals.

The Lady Hawks then traveled to Wibaux on the 29th, where Broadus would once again fall behind early, at one point trailing 1-13 in the first quarter. Emmons rallied her team, and turned things around by playing solid defense and sinking shots at a higher rate than Wibaux, especially in the second quarter, where Broadus led in scoring 17-7. This was the only quarter Broadus had more points than Wibaux, but the point differential was enough for the Lady Hawks to secure another win, 46-40.

Zeason Schaffer led the Lady Hawks in scoring against Wibaux, putting up 16 points, while Abi Krantz had 12.

On Saturday, Broadus traveled to Rosebud County to face Class B Colstrip's JV Girls team. The non-conference game would be a rather unique experience for the Lady Hawks, as Ashley Emmons cut her teeth on the courts at Colstrip. Ashley grew up in Colstrip, and learned the game under then head coach Dwight Gunnare, who racked up an impressive 175-87 record in 11 seasons, along with a pair of state championships; he then went on to coach at Miles Community College and Casper College.

Gunnare's coaching style spread to his players, and Emmons told us that those influences were readily apparent Saturday, as Broadus and Colstrip had many of the same plays and counters for those plays on the court. This meant the Lady Hawks had to figure out ways to beat another team at what was essentially "their own game." Another test for the Lady Hawks was Colstrip's application of man defense, which is not seen with the bulk of Class C teams, per Emmons.

"It was good for us to see someone outside our conference, as well as the different defensive strategies," Ashley spoke.

Broadus was able to notch up another win, 36-30, and gain some much needed experience on the evening.

The recent wins meant Emmons has now led her teams to 100 career wins, a great accomplishment for any coach!

The Lady Hawks travel to Savage this Tuesday, after our deadline, for a non-conference game. Savage beat Broadus by 6 the first time around this season, but with the Lady Hawks much improved, that outcome may be different this time around.

Broadus sits third in the conference with a 7-3 record, behind Melstone at 9-0, and Ekalaka at 9-2.

Boys

The Broadus Boys were on a five game winning streak going into the weekend, and hoped to continue their streak on Friday, at Wibaux.

The Hawks came out hot, playing what Coach Mike Richards described as "the best offensive first half we've played all season."

Broadus dropped 47 points in the first half, which would've been enough points to win the game with no more scoring in the second half of the game. The Hawks would go on to win handily, 68-44.

"Everything clicked for us offensively", Richards said of the game. "Another benefit was getting a lot of playing time for our whole team." In fact, everyone on the team had a least one shot on the night, though not everyone connected to up the point total.

The long range shooters were hot at Wibaux, as the team connected on 50% of their 3 point shots, to sink 10 of 20.

Johnny Richards led from long range, with 4 of his 8 shots from beyond the arc finding the net. Richards had 14 points on the evening. Dillon Gee led in scoring with 19, while Marcus Mader had 11 points and 12 rebounds.

The Hawks had a season high number of assists at Wibaux, with 23, led by Cooper Zimmer with 6.

Coming off the conference win, the Hawks faced a Class B opponent to challenge themselves, on Saturday at Colstrip. Richards told us the Broncs are currently sitting second in their conference, having just lost in a narrow defeat to number one ranked Lodge Grass.

Colstrip came out on top in the first quarter, in part due to some missed shots by Broadus. The Hawks were able to come back hard in the second and third quarters, at one point leading 44-36 in the third quarter.

Colstrip then demonstrated their experience by capitalizing on a few forced attempts by Broadus, and regained the lead in the fourth quarter, to win 66-56.

"We had our chances to win, and overall it was a nice night," Richards commented on the game.

Despite the loss, the Hawks put up some impressive numbers, out-rebounding Colstrip 39 to 31, and sinking 72% of their free throws as a team.

Marcus Mader had a career high performance, scoring 27 points, which put him among a select group with the highest number of points scored by an individual in the state on Saturday (per 406mtsports). Mader hit three 3 pointers and went 4 of 4 from the free throw line on the evening.

Dillon Gee, solid as always, had 19 points against Colstrip.

The Hawks now face 0-7 Custer/Hysham and 1-7 Jordan, before finishing out the season against number 2 ranked Melstone and number 1 ranked Terry in the final weekend.

In the "nice things to see" category, injured Hawk Aidan Kennelly, recently released from the Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City following a December 2020 car wreck, made it to the game in Colstrip. He's now home recovering and reportedly doing well.