Review: State C Girls (Guest Blogger)

Hey everybody, Slim here...with my final Class C Basketball Blog of the season (Sad, I know)...

Montana's high school basketball season has come to a close, folks, with the girls wrapping up their state tournaments last weekend. The storyline heading into the Class C state tournament was whether or not Big Sandy would be able to finish the season undefeated (as Winifred did in the boys tournament). As most of you know, they did not.

They were "upset" by Highwood in the championship game. I quote "upset" because it wasn't really an upset. Big Sandy handed Highwood their only defeat of the season at the Northern Divisional tournament, winning by one in the semi-finals. The high scoring Lady Mountaineers beat Belt in the play-in game to earn the right to play the East's number one seed, Hinsdale. Hinsdale was a slow-the-tempo type of team, implementing a methodical offense and playing stifling defense. Highwood's offense was too much, and they beat Hinsdale by five. They then easily beat Harlowton and Big Sandy to win the championship.

Hinsdale, meanwhile, made their way through the loser's brackets and won the consolation game - a victory over Belt (the North's number two seed, Highwood was actually the third seed).

All of the division's had at least one representative playing on Saturday, but the North still provided three of the top four on Saturday night. Harlowton and Twin Bridges both had disappointing loser-out performances on Saturday, but I fully expect Harlowton to be back at state over the next three years. I've been blowing her horn the past few weeks, but Bailey Snelling should play in more than one state tournament. Aside from her 33 point performance in their overtime victory over Hot Springs, Snelling was held in relative check the rest of the tournament only scoring 26 total points in their other two games. She's only a freshman, so she'll only get better. It should be exciting to see how she develops as a player and how far the Lady Engineers go with her at the helm.

Circle and Ekalaka just ended up on the wrong side of the bracket to do much damage. Clearly the North was the class of Class C, and Circle drew Big Sandy and Belt. Ekalaka, after losing to Twin Bridges, lost to Belt. I wish I was a little more familiar with the teams from the West (Twin Bridges and Hot Springs), as they seemingly gave Hinsdale all they could handle. Twin Bridges got the first round victory over Ekalaka, and Hot Springs lost their two games by a total of eight points.

Unfortunately, Harlowton was the only team I had personally seen play, so I can't make any bold predictions for next season. I expect Bailey Snelling (it probably seems like my fixation with her is unhealthy, but she's a point guard, and I, too, was a point guard, so there's bound to be some interest on my part) to improve and for the Lady Engineers to make another state tournament run. And I expect another strong showing from the North (I played in the Northern Division, so I'm a little biased. I don't get paid to do this, so I don't have to hide it).

Alas, Montana's basketball season is over, so our attention now turns to March Madness, so I'll end with this...

Go UK! Wildcats all the way!