Belt Boys Roll

Over the past two weeks, the Husky basketball teams finished out the regular season of conference play against the DGSG Bearcats, Hobson-Moore Titans, Roy-Winifred Outlaws, and Winnett Grass-Range Rams, and now look towards the District 8C Tournament. The Lady Huskies competed last night against the Hobson-Moore Lady Titans in the first round of play, and managed a victory. The boys play tonight at 6:00 p.m. against the Highwood Mountaineers at the venue, which is Great Falls High School.

Against DGSG, both teams were pretty middle of the road when it came to offense. A couple scores sprinkled in from each team here and there ended the first quarter 12-9 in favor of the home team. The second quarter opened up for both teams, but the Huskies still managed a seven point lead at the break. A massive out-

burst from the boys in the third quarter put them ahead by 18 points, and the Bearcats never recovered. The game ended in a 64-36 Husky victory.

The boys came out firing against the Hobson-Moore Titans, opening up with a 9-0 run. Everything seemed to be clicking for the Maroon and Gold as they held a decent size lead at the half. Hobson-Moore man-aged a couple runs in the second half, but the lead stayed comfortable and the game ended with another home team win, this time by a final of 68-43.

The next game started was the first of the Huskies “Revenge Week” when they got to play against Roy-Winifred and Winnett-Grass Range, the two teams who had beaten them in their last matchups. First was the Out-laws. The Outlaws sprung to an 8-2 lead that would turn into a 16-11 lead at the end of the first. The Huskies managed to shrink that lead in the second quarter, ending the half only down three, 28-25. The boys clawed their way back to start the new half and ended up evening the score out at 42 to end the third. When all was said and done, late free throws by the Husk-ies pushed them over the hump and they prevailed 63-55.

The last game of the season and “Revenge Week” was against the number-1 seed WGR Rams on Senior Night. Both teams got on the board early and started trading bas-kets. The Huskies fought hard enough for a 20-18 halftime lead. The Huskies 20-point third quarter sprung them out to a 12 point lead going into the fourth quarter. A late run by the Rams was all for not as the Huskies grabbed vindication by

a final of 51-41. Senior Reese Paul-son led the team with 20 points in the game.

The JV also concluded their season with a stretch of victories against the previously mentioned opponents, along with the Cascade Badgers and Great Falls Home-school. Some highlights from those games are 8th grader Michael Gay-lord putting up back-to-back 30 point performances while shooting lights out from beyond the arc. Cliff Pethel got a pair of steals against WGR and Cash Smith showed off a new tool in the bag when he went all the way around the rim for the reverse layup.

The pair of wins to end the year have earned the Huskies the number-2 seed in the District 8C

Tournament. The boys will play tonight at 6:00 p.m. against the Highwood Mountaineers.

Good luck to the boys as they make a run at their fifth consecutive state tournament berth.