Horsemen advance to divisionals
Heading into the District 7-B Tournament, two things seemed certain: Bigfork would continue their dominance and Plains would quickly be shown the door. Neither would happen as the two teams met in a peculiar pairing in Saturday’s consolation game.
Although Bigfork emerged victorious, 66-25, Plains had secured a trip to divisionals by virtue of their two tournament wins. The Horsemen entered the tournament 0-10, but finished 2-2 on the weekend.
Plains couldn’t have chosen a better time to pick up its first conference win. The Horsemen punched their tickets to Pablo with a thrilling, opening round win over Eureka, 63-59, on Thursday, and a nail-biting, 45-43 victory over St. Ignatius in Saturday’s loser out game.
“One thing about tournaments, is that anything can happen,” Horsemen head coach Cory Ovitt said. “I think the boys thought all year long that they could play with all the teams in the district. I kept telling them, and the other coaches kept telling them, that we were going to divisionals.”
Ovitt was proud of his team’s effort, saying that every one of them came to play when it mattered most.
In their quarterfinal matchup against Eureka on Thursday, the Horsemen battled their way to an overtime win.
After falling behind 3-10 at the end of the first quarter, the Horsemen rallied to outscore Eureka 17-15 in the second and 22-9 in the third quarter to position themselves for the win.
Taylor Firestone scored a team-high 19 points for Plains. Andrew Baker added 16 points, Jeff Revier 13, Tanner Ostrum eight, Carson Lilja three and Wade Bache and Carter Montgomery two each in the win.
Byrton Guckenberg score in a game-high 21 points to lead the Lions.
In their semifinal matchup against Thompson Falls on Friday, Plains fell 24-54.
Ovitt was not happy with his team’s level of play, citing that they seemed to give up as soon as Thompson gained the lead in the second quarter.
Garrett Reinschmidt scored a game-high 17 points to lead the Bluehawks.
Plains was led by Brandyn Smith’s eight points. Baker added four points, Lilja and Revier three apiece and Firestone, Bache and Ostrom two each.
The loss pitted Plains against Mission in a loser out game on Saturday. The Horsemen came out on top, after a 16-12 fourth quarter run helped them clinch a divisional birth.
Lilja, 12, and Baker, 11, scored in double figures for Plains. Firestone added nine, Ostrum six, Jeremiah Crawford three and Revier two points in the win.
Dylan Evans scored a game-high 13 for the Bulldogs who finished the season at 10-10.
It was all Bigfork in the consolation game, as the Vikings earned the third seed to divisionals by blowing out the Horsemen.
Christian Ker scored 18 points for Bigfork who led 34-10 by halftime.
Travis Lilja and Robert Earhart each scored five points to lead Plains. Jeremiah Crawford added four points, Carson Lilja and Ostrum three apiece, Revier and Carter Montgommery two and Bache one point.
At divisions, Plains will face Florence in their opening round matchup. Ovitt said the Falcons are a very big team, with two starters over 6’6.”h He said that despite the challenge ahead of them, he and his team are excited and confident that they can continue to play their brand of basketball against a tough opponent.