Clark Fork fights hard at District 13C

As the beloved baseball legend Yogi Berra once said, “it ain’t over till it’s over.”

That was the case of the Montana District 13C boys basketball tournament held this past week at Frenchtown High School.

After an overtime thriller and a hard fought championship game, the tournament’s final outcome was still up for grabs.

Friday night Darby and Seeley-Swan engaged in a tight battle that saw Darby claim the District championship with a 47-39 over the Blackhawks. The win by the third-seeded Tigers allowed them to advance to the Divisional playoffs this weekend, once again hosted by Frenchtown.

However, the second spot and with it the right to also advance to the next round of playoffs remained unsettled as second-seed Clark Fork, after losing an overtime thriller to Darby in the semifinals, bounced back to win the consolation game Friday afternoon.

The win by the Mountain Cats for third place earned them the right to challenge Seeley-Swan in a game played Monday evening in Frenchtown.

Seeley-Swan beat Clark Fork 55-41 to advance from 13-C.

Montana high school rules allow for the consolation winner to challenge the finals loser if the two have not played each other earlier in the tournament.

That was the exact scenario which set up the Clark Fork versus Seeley-Swan play-in game. The two teams split a pair of games against each other in the regular season making the challenge game a de facto rubber match.

Getting to the consolation final involved an arduous path for the Mountain Cats, who lost an overtime thriller to Darby in their Thursday semifinal game. In that game, the Tigers jumped to a narrow early lead which they held onto until the waning moments of the final quarter.

After three quarters of play, Darby held a 35-29 lead heading into the final quarter and seemed to be in control.

But Clark Fork was not done. The Cats defense came together to hold the Tigers to 18 points while their offense, led by juniors Aaron Waddle and Carson Callison put up 24 points to close the gap to 53-51 with 13 seconds to play in regulation.

A pair of missed free throws by Darby was followed by an in-bounds play to Waddle that he turned into two points as time ran out, knotting the score at 53-all and sending the game into the only overtime contest of the tournament.

In the extra period, Darby scored first and held off numerous Clark Fork rallies, eventually outscoring the Mountain Cats 12-7 as they held on for the overtime win and a trip to the District finals.

Darby was paced by brothers Gabe Smith who had a game-high 25 points, and Nelson Smith, who added 18.

Waddle headed a trio of Clark Fork players who scored in double figures, netting 19 for the game. He was joined by Callison with 16 points and freshman Orion Plaake, who had 13.

The Clark Fork loss sent them to the consolation round Friday morning, where they dispatched Valley Christian 63-51 in a loser out game, then defeated Lincoln, 71-58 later that day to win the consolation bracket and the right to challenge Seeley-Swan.

Seeley advanced to the championship game with an easy win over Victor, before falling to Darby.