MISSOULA — The semifinals are set for the Class C boys state tournament.
Scobey (24-1) used a surge of 11 unanswered points in the second quarter to seize control en route to a comfortable win over Winnett-Grass Range. The Rams (22-3) struggled with turnovers throughout, committing 11 in the first half and 21 for the game.
Belt (22-2) used a big third quarter to surge past West Yellowstone (14-10) in Wednesday’s second game. The Huskies will take on Scobey in a semifinal battle of rock-solid defensive teams on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
On the other side of the bracket, Lustre Christian (22-3) built a 16-point halftime lead over Chester-Joplin-Inverness (20-5) and held on for a 66-52 win to advance to its second state semifinal in three years.
Manhattan Christian (21-4) survived a last-minute surge from Roy-Winifred (17-9) to hold on and win 41-35. The Eagles and Lions will square off tomorrow at 8 p.m.
Manhattan Christian 41, Roy-Winifred 35
Conventional thought would suggest Manhattan Christian Eagles might as well feel at home at the state tournament.
The 2022 and 2023 state champions have reached the championship game in each of the last four seasons. The year before that, the Eagles reached the state semifinal.
And yet, graduating seven seniors has brought up a fresh crop of players without the level of state-tournament experience one might expect of the program.
“There’s a little bit of a different speed in your first time in the state tournament,” Manhattan Christian head coach Layne Glaus said after the game. “The bright lights can get to a guy, so it’s good to get one under a belt.”
A game that appeared destined for a lopsided Manhattan Christian win at one point turned to a tight, gutsy win in a flash. The Eagles’ 41-35 win over Roy-Winifred secures a semifinal matchup with Lustre Christian tomorrow night.
The biggest point of emphasis heading into tomorrow will be a simple one for the Eagles.
“Take care of the ball,” Glaus said. “I think it’s as simple as that, just being solid with it. They’re letting some bumping and hand-checking go, but we’ve got to adjust and just be strong.”
The statsheet speaks to Glaus’ point. The Eagles committed 24 turnovers, triple the amount of the Red Raiders at eight. Multiple turnovers in the closing minutes of the game allowed for Roy-Winifred buckets that cut a double-digit lead down to a five-point game with 97 seconds on the clock.
The Eagles were able to prevail, but the team knows it will need a higher level of execution going forward. Senior forward Andrew Kimm said his team knows it needed to put the game away earlier.
“We know that, and so that can’t happen again,” Kimm said. “But I think we’re at a point mentally where we can put that in the rear-view mirror and be like, ‘Okay, we win this game by 20 if we finished the right way.'”
Kimm recorded a double-double in the Eagles’ win, notching a team-high 14 points alongside 15 rebounds. Four of those boards came on the offensive end. Zach Venema hauled in 11 boards as well, the pair of bigs helping create a 41-17 margin on the glass over the Red Raiders.
“We always talk about winning the possession battle, getting more shots than their team,” Kimm added. “Tonight is probably close because we turned it over a bunch, but that’s (rebounds) big time for us because more shots, more wins.”
Kimm skied for multiple dunks, as well, which both players and coaches agreed helps the team’s spark.
“It’s a high-percentage shot for us,” Glaus joked. “It gets the boys going, and it kind of gives them a little extra energy.”
Up next for the Eagles are the Lustre Christian Lions, a team Manhattan Christian holds no lack of familiarity with. The Eagles have ended the Lions’ season in both of the previous two state tournaments, while the Lions dominated Manhattan Christian at home in December, 76-45.
Glaus complimented Lustre Christian’s plethora of weapons the team can score with and said the familiarity will certainly bring an added element to the game.
“The boys will be ready to go tomorrow,” Glaus added.
Lustre Christian 66, Chester-Joplin-Inverness 52
The 2026 season marks four trips to the state tournament in a row for Lustre Christian.
The Lions have reached the semifinal in just one of their previous three trips, falling in the first round last spring to Manhattan Christian. The team features no lack of experience on the state’s biggest stage, though, and the team is hoping to get over the hump this time around.
“We’re not taking anything for granted,” Lions head coach Randy Reddig said after the game. “But all of these guys, pretty much, have at been to at least one or two (state tournaments). So that definitely helps.”
The composure that comes from game experience was on full display in Lustre Christian’s 66-52 win over Chester-Joplin-Inverness. The eastern 1-seed did not shoot to their standards, Reddig said, but the group was still able to secure a double-digit win.
The win sets up another potential matchup with Manhattan Christian in the semifinal, who plays Roy-Winifred this evening.
“We usually shoot it a little bit better than we did today, but we like to play fast,” Reddig said.
The speed of the Lions helps explain the 16-point lead they accrued by the halftime intermission. The two sides shot roughly the same percentages from the field, and the Lions only made three more free throws than CJI. The difference came in the turnover margin; Lustre Christian forced 10 turnovers and allowed just one in the first half.
The disparity led to an 11-0 differential in points off of turnovers in favor of the Lions.
The Hawks refused to lie down in the quarterfinal, though, drawing within seven with a little over three minutes to go in the third quarter. A Cam Reddig triple extended the Lions’ lead to 11 entering the final period, though.
CJI fought back once again, cutting the deficit to eight in the fourth quarter. Another Lustre Christian 3-pointer stifled the run, though, and this one kickstarted a Lions run of their own.
Joel Reddig hit a triple to extend the Lion lead to 14, and a 2-pointer from Cam made it a 16 lead. The final blow came in the form of a triple, this time from Cam once again, to create a 14-point lead with three minutes and 21 seconds remaining in the contest.
A hefty congregation of CJI fans brought noise during the Hawks’ second-half runs and created some real momentum for the northern 2-seed. Lustre Christian weathered the storm, though, and came out of the game with its second semifinal appearance in three years.
“I was just telling them to relax (during the CJI runs), because I felt like we were playing a little bit tight, a little bit hesitant,” Randy said. “We were waiting, hesitating a little bit.”
Cam finished the game with a game-high 18 points, Joel right behind him with 16. Prestyn Klatt and Johnslee Pierre also reached double-digit scoring with 10 a piece. Pierre recorded a double-double with 11 boards. CJI was led by Levi Nelson who scored 11.
Lustre Christian awaits the winner of Roy-Winifred and Manhattan Christian.
Scobey 71, Winnett-Grass Range 45
After suffering their only loss to Lustre Christian in Eastern divisional finals Saturday, the Spartans have responded with two blowout wins, including Wednesday’s dominant performance in their state opener. They enjoyed impressive scoring balance, with six players tallying nine or more points.
Kolten Machart led the way with 14, followed by Reese Tande and Cam Cromwell each with 11, John Carney and Bram Handran with 10 apiece and Cooper Axtman with nine. Handran dished out a team-high six assists and grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
After a slow start, Scobey caught fire in the second period, using a 22-8 run to help it build a 41-27 lead at intermission. The Spartans didn’t shoot well in the third quarter (3 for 14) but still managed extend their lead to 22 points en route to the blowout win.
“We have a lot of seniors, a lot of experience, so I was really proud of the way they bounced back from that loss,” Scobey coach Jason Wolfe said of last weekend’s setback at the hands of Lustre Christian. “Sometimes the ball doesn’t go in the hole, and unfortunately we picked a bad spot to have that happen.
“We didn’t shoot great today either but we found other ways to get it done, on the defensive end and then we got out on transition.”
The Spartans were certainly a great deal more successfull shooting Wednesday than they were in their losing effort Saturday, when they hit just 22 percent from the floor. In their state debut they shot 50 percent (29 for 58) and hit 6 of 19 shots from deep.
The Rams, in contrast, shot 35.4 percent from the field against Scobey’s hustling man defense, hitting 17 of 48 attempts. Winnett-Grass Range also had trouble matching the Spartans from 3-point range, hitting just one of 12 attempts.
“After that tough loss in divisionals we have the mindset to make up for that, coming out with max energy every game,” Machart said. “We just have to know when shots aren’t falling, we have to buckle down and do the fundamental things and play defense, always play defense.
“We’re playing together. We still have to get our post game going sometimes. We didn’t have a huge post presence in that (loss). We just have to be physical all the time and can’t let people push us around.”
Scobey, who won the 8-man football title in November, finished with a 27-11 advantage in points off turnovers and a 42-30 edge points in the paint. The Spartans held an 18-5 edge in fastbreak points and a 26-4 advantage in bench points.
Jace Bantz had an impressive showing in defeat for the Rams with 21 points and 16 rebounds. Guard Randy Olson added 12 points and Wyatt Melton six but no other team member had more than two. Winnett-Grass Range lost the battle of the boards, 33-31, and will try to regroup in a loser-out game Thursday at 9 a.m.
Belt 62, West Yellowstone 53
Huskies coach Kyle Paulson wasn’t doing cartwheels over Wednesday’s win because he knows his team can play better, especially on the defensive end. Still, there was reason to smile after Belt used a 30-15 surge in the third quarter to break open a close game.
Paulson took issue with the way his team played on the fourth quarter. The Wolverines outscored the Huskies, 17-4, although the outcome was never really in doubt.
“I just feel like we have to get back to what we do — we kinda go a little helter skelter and were not very deliberate with what we wanted to do offensively,” Paulson said. “We were throwing up some uncharacteristic shots, then all of a sudden it looked like fourth hour PE there for about five or six possessions going back and forth.
“It wasn’t very clean or good basketball. I told them the good thing is we’re still alive and if you can learn from it and understand … Sometimes these environments get you to pull away from the things you’re supposed to be doing or the things that got you here.”
The first half was a nip-and-tuck affair, with Belt leading 12-9 after one period and 28-21 at intermission. The Huskies overwhelmed the Wolverines in the third quarter, using a 10-for-16 shooting clinic to build a 58-36 lead. From there it was just a matter of holding on for Belt while suffering through a 2-for-13 shooting effort in the final eight minutes.
“We kind of have a crew that’s maybe a little new to this environment, and they acknowledge that. They knew when we went in the locker room (afterwards) and talked to them it was like, ‘We have to be better,'” Paulson said. “This is not how we want people to view us.
“And I don’t want take anything away, there were some good moments. Defensively we had some good moments. We sped them up, which was part of what our goal was, to get them playing at a different pace.”
Key to the outcome was Belt’s 20-8 edge in points off turnovers and 28-12 edge in points in the paint. Belt also proved to be the deeper team with a 14-0 advantage in bench points.
Michael Gaylord led the Huskies with 18 points, followed by Grahm Halley with 13 and Slater Lords 10. Kolin Halley grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. Belt shot 40.7 percent from the field (24 for 69) and hit 8 of 21 shots from deep.
West Yellowstone finished with 23 turnovers to 11 for Belt. The Wolverines were led by Austin Hales with 15 points, followed by Noah Flores with 12 and Diego Allen and Abrams Clark with 11 apiece. Allen grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
Belt will have its hands full with the fast and physical Scobey Spartans.
“They’re going to be a handful,” Paulson said. “They pass very well. We’ll play our style but we’ll have to make a few variations. They can really punish you if you don’t get in the right (defensive) rotations.
“We’re a scrappy little bunch and we’ve got to play that way. We don’t have any giants. In the third quarter when we were making baskets tonight, we did a good job of it. It just seemed like we were in awe for a couple possessions, especially some of our younger guys, who have done a great job for us all season coming in and providing some depth to play this way. On the positive side, you have a game where you don’t play great but you still move on. We’ll take it.”
Manhattan Christian 41, Roy/Winifred 35
Roy 9 3 12 11 – 35
Christian 12 8 13 8 – 41
ROY/WINIFRED (17-9) – Jadon Warneke 1 1 1-2 3, Parker Knox 2 0-0 5, Gunner Knox 4 0-2 9, Kellena Heggen 2 0-2 4, John Rich 6 0-114, Carter Rich 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 1-7 35.
MANHATTAN CHRISTIAN (21-4) – Tate Hamilton 0 0-0 0, Max Venhuizen 4 0-0 12, Andrew Kimm 6 2-4 14, Beau Venhuizen 2 0-0 5, Zach Venema 2 3-4 7, Owen Venhuizen 0 0-0 0, Blaise Bolich 1 0-0 3, Brooks Bolich 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 5-8 41.
3-point goals: R/W 4 (J. Rich 2, P. Knox 1, G. Knox 1), MC 6 (M. Venhuizen 4, B. Venhuizen 1, Bl. Bolich 1).