Powder River Examiner -

Broadus high school basketball started off their season with wins at the Coach Connors Classic in Miles City over the weekend. The tournament features "contender" teams from around Eastern and Southern Montana (from the 2C,3C,4C, and 5C districts), including Broadus, Circle, Ekalaka, Plentywood, Melstone, North Country, Jordan, Savage, Scobey, and Harlowton/ Ryegate.

Broadus teams played two games each, facing Savage on Friday, and Harlowton/Ryegate on Saturday. The Hawks and Lady Hawks were successful in all four games.

Girls

With four returning players on the team from last year's varsity squad which went as far as the Divisional Tourney, the Lady Hawks look to integrate in a new bevy of players into the fold. Returning starters include Seniors Emma Isaacs, Zeason Schaffer, and Mia Mader, and Junior Maddie Zimmer. Joining the team this year are 9th graders Shaylee Bilbrey and Kassie Hagedorn, Sophomores Gracey Bradley and Maggie Mader, and 8th grader Emelyn Harper.

Kristie Lanke takes the helm as Head Coach this season for the Lady Hawks. Kristie previously served for several seasons as the Boys Assistant Coach, as well as coaching Girls JV and Girls JH teams, so Lanke has coached all members of the current girls team at some point during their budding basketball careers. Kristie is assisted by Jamie Harper and Mike Richards.

Lanke told us during an interview Monday afternoon that with a team learning to play together as a team there will certainly be a learning curve, and she was impressed with how the girls handled that learning curve in play at Miles City.

The team spread the scoring around well against Savage, with five members of the team sinking baskets in the 39-37 win. Savage led by as many as six points in the 4th quarter, but Broadus soared back to win the game in the final minute.

Savage's offense was led primarily by one player who scored five three pointers, while Zeason Schaffer led the Lady Hawks with 13 points; Mia Mader had 9 and Maddie Zimmer 8.

Harlowton came out in a 1-3-1 zone against Broadus, which threw the Lady Hawks for a bit of a loop early in the game, but the Lady Hawks were able to once again pull out a win, led by Mia Mader with 10 points as Harlow launched 30 3 pointers and only sunk 2.

"As we play more games we'll see more of that chemistry between the team and they learn what I expect of them and they expect of me," Lanke noted after commenting on the wins.

Boys

The Broadus boys have big shoes to fill this season as they come off the 22-23 season which saw them winning the 4C Conference undefeated, and were three time District Champs, Divisional Champs, and fell one game short of a trophy at State.

The Hawks graduated three players last year but maintain a very solid corps of seven returning seniors this season, including Josh Rasmussen, Eli Heacock, Cooper Zimmer, Matt Hansen, Thomas Oylear, and Landen Capp. Zach Jones and Jayce Schroeder are also on the varsity roster in the first games of the season.

Coach Dustin Lanke returns to coach the team; he is assisted by Kyle Copelan and Steve Graff.

The boys led off their season by pressing Savage's tall offense (which features three players 6'3" or taller), which led to a large number of turnovers, and 18 points off Savage turnovers in the game. Lanke told us during an interview on Monday that the press may have shown Broadus their own weakness in conditioning, as Savage was able to tire the Hawks in the second quarter, with Savage scoring 17 points in that quarter. After the half, Broadus went back to a half court defense and nearly shut down the Warriors, as Savage only scored 8 points in the second half. Broadus won 51-32.

On Saturday the Hawks faced a Harlowton team which had been expected to be on the top teams in the 5C. One of their star players, Kenyan Davis, was out of the game with a wrist injury. Meanwhile, Broadus was able to shut down their all state point guard, Bergen Mysse, limiting him to 2 points and forcing him to turn the ball over six times.

Maddie Zimmer drives to the hoop.

The Hawks went 7 for 15 on three pointers in the game, in the 56-28 win.

Thus far in the season Lanke has improved on two points of emphasis he pushed in practice – free throw percentage and three point percentage. Through the first two games of the year Broadus is averaging 70% from the line, and 33% from beyond the arc, both improvements over last year.

"The team is very unselfish," Lanke noted, using the example that every player on the team scored during the Harlowton game.

This weekend, Broadus travels to another tournament – this time in Scobey. There they will play the tough Lustre Christian, a State level team from last season in the boys, and Scobey, which sends perennially tough teams onto the court and beat Broadus at State several years ago.