The regular season in District 9C boys basketball has clearly become a two-team race for the top seed to the tournament followed by six teams that really could knock any of the others off on any given night.
Big Sandy wants to emerge in the league's upper half and took an important step in that direction Friday with a thrilling 58-57 win at Chester-Joplin-Inverness. The Pioneers (3-6) thus avenged a 15-point loss at home to the Hi-Line Hawks earlier in the season. The win gave notice neither CJI nor Box Elder can rest easy about remaining ahead of Big Sandy for tourney seeding.
"We played really well with them," Pioneers coach Thomas Dilworth said of the CJI rematch. "It was a very physical game, so for some young kids to contend with that, that's good experience."
It boosted the Pioneers' confidence after another tough tussle with Fort Benton, a 71-29 loss Jan. 26 at the Longhorns' home court. Big Sandy came back home with no fear of the visiting Chinook Sugarbeeters Saturday and for the first 12 minutes, the biggest upset of the season in the 9C appeared to be in the works.
The Beeters were just two points short at Fort Benton of taking the district lead and crushed Big Sandy when the Pioneers visited Blaine County.
Yet they seemed a little stunned when Kody Strutz's shot from the low block banked in and the sophomore's free throw completed a three-point play that gave the Pioneers a 17-12 lead to conclude the first quarter.
The teams traded blows to start the second stanza as Strutz's blocked shot made its way into the hands of Lane Demontiney who converted on the other end to make it 19-15. A foul shot from Demontiney and a pair at the stripe by Kade Strutz brought Big Sandy to a 22-21 edge as 4 minutes remained in the first half. Though that lead would be their last.
"In the second quarter, (Chinook) switches it up, the same thing Box Elder did to us," Dilworth said. "That first quarter, we showed we could play with Chinook. In the second quarter, we let them run a bit and you can't allow that with Chinook."
Benton Elliot's three-pointer at the halftime buzzer gave the Beeters their first double-digit lead, 32-22. The Pioneers responded with some solid defense in the third-quarter, as Kody Strutz and Wylee Snapp each recorded crowd-pleasing blocked shots. On the other end, sloppy and overly ambitious passes indicated a futile desire to make up a 15-point deficit in a single possession.
"They're a tough team and then you really try to overcompensate," Dilworth said.
Demontiney led all scorers with 15 points. Ethan MacLeod led the way with 14 for Chinook.
Dilworth said the game plan against Chinook may pay off better in Friday's rematch with Box Elder, who needed late fourth-quarter heroics to pull away from the Pioneers at Big Sandy.
The Bears lack the Beeters' size, "the only thing that we can't match," he said.
The coach did see the Pioneers "making blocks and jumping passes, not getting intimated," he said.
That bodes well both for facing upperclassmen-led Box Elder and potentially getting another shot at Chinook, who Big Sandy stunned in the 9C tourney a year ago.
"We're going to be the ones that make all the corrections," Dilworth said. "I like our chances."
The Pioneers return home for a 4:30 tipoff Saturday against North Star.
