Montana High School Basketball Tourney: Broncs Are on Their Way

Both the Hamilton Broncs and Lady Broncs basketball teams have advanced to next week's State Class A high school basketball tournament at the University of Montana. The teams took different paths to get there in this past weekend's Western Divisional tournament, which was in the Hamilton High School gym.

Lady Broncs

The top-ranked Lady Broncs started with a 59 to 19 victory over Polson Thursday and outscored Browning in a Friday semi-final to get them into the Championship, which automatically entered them into the State competition. That Saturday game was a rematch between Dillon and Hamilton from the District tournament. Hamilton won that first game a week ago, but Dillon was the winner this time by a score of 52 to 37.

Hamilton Broncs

Meanwhile, the Hamilton Broncs dropped their initial Divisional game Thursday, losing a close game to Polson 50 to 47. The Broncs eliminated Libby from the tournament Friday, outscoring the Loggers 50 to 37. Saturday morning, the Broncs topped Frenchtown 48 to 45, which put them into the Consolation game, once again battling Polson. Polson slipped by them 40 to 36, but by taking 4th place in the tournament, Hamilton also goes to State. The teams get a week off, with the State competition next week, March 9-12.

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By the way, the Stevensville Lady Yellowjackets ended one game short of going to state, losing to Butte Central Saturday afternoon by a score of 56 to 32.

The teams competing next week

The two Hamilton teams will be playing in back-to-back games Wednesday, March 9, with the Broncs at 5 p.m. against Fergus County and the Lady Broncs at 6:30 p.m. against Hardin.

Other Girls teams in the tournament besides Hamilton are Butte Central, Custer County, Dillon, Browning, Havre, Hardin, Columbia Falls, and Billings Central. The Boys teams joining Hamilton will be Fergus County, Butte Central, Polson, Dawson County, Frenchtown, Havre, Dillon and Laurel.

KLYQ will be carrying those March 9th games on 1240 KLYQ AM Radio, at www.klyq.com and on our free mobile app. Just look for KLYQ in your Apple or Android stores. We also want to thank our Hamilton High School sports sponsors. They make these game broadcasts possible.