BILLINGS — Rocky Mountain College's Gracee Lekvold and MSUB’s Kortney Nelson are more than just familiar with one another.
Lekvold and Nelson played together up in Scobey, where the Spartans reached multiple state tournaments and brought home a third-place trophy in 2019.
There were times, though, where it wasn’t always sunshine and daisies between the two friends.
“We played a lot of one-on-one. There was a lot of competition," Nelson said. "We’d always get into – not fight, but it was always a competition in practice and stuff so that’s fun.”
“It never really ended well, we’d just get really mad at each other. We kind of took the one-on-one out or else it would end up in a fight, probably," Lekvold laughed.
The pair meet up several times throughout the year to hang out, and their head-to-head meetings have turned into a sort of event for the folks of Scobey, who are as basketball crazed as any community in the state.
“It’s actually really fun. They’ll all go usually to the 406 and pregame our game. I’ll go hang out there for a little bit and catch up," Lekvold said. "There’s actually a group of moms and they wear a shirt with the No. 14. The shirt is gold and one number is in green the other is in blue.”
Neither Lekvold nor Nelson wore #14 in high school, but the two share it now. And though they’re close off the floor, their competitive desire takes over between the lines.
“It’s kind of hard. You get a smile on your face when you’re guarding each other. We always did it in high school, but now it’s actually in a real game. It’s fun," Nelson said. "It’s hard to play against each other, just because we do know what each other does, but it’s just one-on-one – who can beat the other one.”
Rocky and MSUB renew the Rimrock Rivalry on Thursday evening inside Alterowitz Gym at 7 p.m.
