Powder River Examiner -

The Broadus basketball teams traveled to Savage last Tuesday, followed by home games against Custer/Hysham on Friday, and a trip to Jordan on Saturday. This weekend, Broadus travels to Meltone Friday, and hosts Terry on Saturday. Senior night will take place after the girls varsity game, before the boys warm up.

The District Tournament will be played in Miles City, beginning next Wednesday, with games split between the Custer County High and the Miles Community College gyms in order to allow janitorial staff enough time to clean the gyms between games. Tickets will be not be the "complete tournament pass" format as in previous years, instead a ticket will only be valid for a single team, that is, anyone purchasing a Broadus ticket will only be able to attend the games in which Broadus plays. 200 tickets will be available for each team. Broadus will be sold at PRCDHS; they will not be available in Miles City.

Here are the stories of last week's games:

Girls

The Lady Hawks started out slow at Savage, falling behind in the first half. This has been the story throughout much of the Lady Hawks season – in the games they've lost, they've generally fallen behind early and created too big of a hole to dig out of in the second half. Against Savage, the Lady Hawks went into the locker rooms at the half down 9-18. Broadus rallied in the second half, winning the points battle in each of the last two quarters, but Savage still squeaked out a win 42-40. Oliveah Schaffer lead the Lady hawks in scoring, with 15.

On Friday against Custer/ Hysham, Broadus Head Coach Ashley Emmons told us she tried to mentally prepare her team to come out of the locker room ready to win; this method seemed to work as Broadus led 16-15 at the half.

Broadus was up by as many as six points in the fourth quarter, but Custer/Hysham battled back to nearly tie the game before the Lady Hawks sealed the win, 35-31.

Emmons said she was extremely proud of her team for pulling out the close win, with the entire team including the bench players showing positive gains on the evening.

Aspen Krantz scored 12 points for Broadus. Aspen couldn't miss from the free throw line, going six for six on the evening.

At Jordan, the Lady Hawks once again fell into their habit of coming out slow, but were only down four at the half, in good position for a comeback, as Broadus generally has excelled in the second half.

Emmons said that the comeback was not to be on Saturday, as "there was a letdown in our effort in the second half." Broadus battled to within 3 with three minutes left, but then seemed to go flat, giving up a number of scores in the final minutes to fall 31-47.

The loss at Jordan cost the Lady Hawks their shot at third place in the conference, and with games coming up this weekend against 12-0 Melstone and 0-13 Terry in the final home game, the path looks fairly set for Broadus to go into the tournament in fourth place. This would mean a likely first round matchup against Wibaux, which Broadus has beaten twice this year.

Boys

The Broadus boys came out hot against Savage in non-conference action last Tuesday, going up as much as 21-12 in the second quarter, and leading until the fourth quarter. Savage fought back to regain the lead in the fourth, outscoring Broadus 24-18 to win the game 66-60. Dillon Gee led the Hawks in scoring with 27.

Broadus hosted Custer/ Hysham on Friday, and though the Rebels held the Hawks to a close game in the first half, the Hawks came out in the third quarter on a tear, scoring 24 points in the quarter to Custer/Hysham's 5. The Hawks would coast to an easy win 49-32.

Emma Isaacs lays up a shot on a fast break following a steal in the waning minutes of the game.

On Saturday at Jordan, Broadus was able to repeat their performance from the night before, this time going up early 24-5 after the first quarter, eventually winning the game 55-28. Dillon Gee led in scoring with 24, followed by Marcus Mader with 19. Gee would also snag 18 rebounds in the road win.

The Hawk Boys are now in a battle for first as they go into their final weekend of play, at Melstone on Friday and against Terry on Saturday. Both Broadus and Melstone are 9-1 in conference play, with Terry sitting at 9-2 after losing to both Broadus and Melstone. If Broadus wins out the weekend they snag the conference title, while losses to both teams would put them in third place going into the tournament. If Broadus splits wins, the results could be more complicated. A win against Terry and a loss to Melstone results in second place for Broadus. A win against Melstone and loss to Terry results in a three-way tie for first, which comes down to a tie-breaker procedure featuring point differentials.