A more ideal opportunity could not have been presented for the regular season finale for Big Sandy girl's basketball.
The Lady Pioneers, who avenged a close loss on the road against Chinook at home to snap a two-year long streak of league losses, faced Chester-Joplin-Inverness Saturday after an even closer overtime game in the first meeting.
Home-court advantage did not make a difference this time, though, in a 47-23 loss.
In fact, it seemed as if somebody put a lid on the bucket as nearly nothing would fall for the Pioneers.
"We made the basketball gods mad or something," said Big Sandy coach Pete Jerrel. "We couldn't buy a bucket for a long time."
In the opening minutes, it appeared the game everyone expected would play itself out. Senior Seanna Demontiney splashed a corner three-pointer to begin the contest and seniors Lainey Gregory and Amanda Cline went a combined 3-of-4 from the free-throw line to build a 6-3 lead. C-J-I bounced back to go up 8-6 but Gregory got back to the foul line to halve that lead.
Then it all began to unravel. The Hi-Line Hawks' Tatum Hull got busy picking off passes and converting on the other end. Hull went on to score a game-high 27 points. C-J-I went on a 15-0 run and never looked back, keeping Big Sandy scoreless for more than six minutes until a baseline jumper from Gregory cut it to 23-9.
Another 4-minute stretch without a basket greeted the Pioneers out of the locker room, though a pair of free throws from Cline and a trey from the elbow by Demontiney closed the gap to 28-16 with just a hair above three minutes to go in the third quarter. Big Sandy would come no closer.
Demontiney left the floor of her home gym for the last time with 2:27 on the clock after picking up her fifth foul and received an ovation from the purple faithful appreciative of her efforts.
Gregory led her team with 10 points in the contest.
The loss at home came on the heels of a 60-25 defeat on the road Friday against District 9C runner-up Turner.
The Lady Pioneers (1-13, 2-16) are scheduled to tip-off the District 9C tournament as the eighth seed against top-seeded and undefeated Fort Benton at 11 a.m. Thursday in the Blue Pony Corral at Havre High School.
