The Broadus finished their season one game short of playing in the State Championship, over the weekend in Billings. The Hawks crushed Lone Peak in the first round, lost in a very close game to Big Sandy (who would go on to take second), and then fell to Fairview in consolation bracket action.

Broadus Head Coach Dustin Lanke provided a great summary of the state games, in his own words:

Broadus 66 Lone Peak 38

We had a slow start and trailed after the first quarter, but after that we were able to dominate inside against a much smaller team. We shot 66% from 2 point range in the game and a blistering 17 for 19 in the second half. We were able to hold their two top players, Max Romney and Isaac Bedway, to a combined 9 points. We shared the ball well with 17 assists, thanks mostly to defeating their press and getting a lot of easy transition points in the second half. We also shot well from the free throw line, going 12 for 16.

Broadus 53 Big Sandy 55

Big Sandy was a very talented and deep basketball team. They were Class C State Champions in 6 man football this season and their physicality on the football field translated to the basketball court. Looking at box scores throughout the season showed that any of their top 5 guys could lead them in scoring on any given night. Cody Strutz, who averaged 8.3 ppg during the state tournament, had a 44 point game early in the season.

This is what the game highs looked like for their 5 starters during the season: Strutz (44), Demontiney (28), Cline (32), Pedraza (29), and Snapp (13). It was pick your poison as far as a defensive strategy against this team.

They were really good at beating you off the dribble and getting to the rim, but they could also light you up from the three point line. Cline had a 28 point game the night before against an undefeated Lustre Christian squad, so we wanted to slow him down and make him give the ball up as much as possible.

Another slow start had us trailing 9-1 early in the game, but we finished the quarter on an 8-6 run, now only trailing 15-9 after the first quarter.

We exploded in the second quarter, outscoring the Pioneers 19-6 and led 28-21 at halftime. We were affecting a lot of shots they had at the rim with our size and were giving them fits, however we ended up in foul trouble with our big guys as a result of the aggressive play inside.

The magic would run out after halftime; Big Sandy came out hot in the third quarter and we dug deeper into foul trouble, which made it so we had to switch to a zone to protect our big guys. Big Sandy took advantage and hit some outside shots that we couldn't recover from.

Strutz (7 points), Demontiney (7 points), and Snapp (6 points) were all held in check and we did a decent job on Cline (13 points), but as they had done all season long, one of the five stepped up big and the 6'5" Senior Isaac Pedraza (22 points) killed us from the 3 point line in the 4th quarter to seal the game.

Marcus Mader led us with 19 points and Dillon Gee was right behind with 18. We had been shooting 80% from the free throw line since the start of the Divisional tournament, but our luck would run out and we only shot 12 for 22 in the game.

The boys have nothing to hang their heads about with the loss. Once you get that deep into the state tournament every team is super tough and you just have to grind one out against a tough team and have luck on your side to advance. Big Sandy had a little more luck than us with the 50/50 balls late in the game and we just couldn't put together another solid quarter like the 2nd period.

You can look back on the game and wish you had done things a little differently and I know myself and the boys are beating ourselves up over it, but at the end of the day, we fought like hell and went down swinging, and I couldn't be more proud of this team and the effort they gave that night.

Broadus 47 Fairview 56

Fairview was a familiar foe, we had lost to them 45-40 the first game of the season. Their physicality and size was too much for us and we weren't able to match it. They shot 25 free throws compared to our 9 and that proved to be the difference in the game. We weren't able to finish inside like we had been able to all season and were only able to make 32% of our shots.

Montana State Football commit Hunter Sharbono torched us for a second time this season with 26 points, and 6'5" Jeff Tjelde managed to chip in another 17.

For the Hawks, Marcus Mader led the team with 21 points and Dillon Gee was held to a season low 8 points.

Editor: Some perspective: The 2022-23 Hawks were one of only six teams out of 82 in the state (and 100 total schools) in Class C to play on the last day of the season, a great accomplishment by any measure. The team went undefeated in conference play during the regular season. They won the District Championship for the third year in a row, the Divisional Championship for only the third time in school history, and fell one game short of a trophy at State. Only one team in Broadus history has ever won a trophy at State – the 1977 Hawks placed 3rd.

Besides all that, the team this year seemed to genuinely enjoy being on the court, playing a fun game with their friends. That joie de vivre for the game was reflected in the fan base, as excited, happy fans provided boisterous support for their team, cheering from the stands.

We'll have more from the Hawk's season in an upcoming story, as well as details on All-Star selections, and how things are looking for the future of Broadus Hawk basketball.

2023 State basketball individual stats for Broadus.

More pics are available in this week's photo gallery.