HELENA — Billings West and Billings Skyiew traveled to the Capital City Friday night for some boys basketball action with Helena High and Helena Capital, and both Billings schools came away with wins.
Billings West 68, Helena High 43
Helena's Jaxan Leiberg started off with a hesitation dunk to get the game rolling, but it was all Golden Bears from there as West rolled to a 68-43 win. Cooper Tyson hit back-to-back buckets to put West up 12-4 with about two minutes left to play in the first quarter.
Billings West would hang onto a 20-6 lead after the first quarter ended. Midway through the second quarter, future Montana Tech football player Kyler Larson knocked down his first 3-pointer of the game to keep Helena within 15 points in a first half that appeared to get away from Bengals as they would trail 35-20 at the break.
Tyson and Billings West scored 17 points in the third and capped the game with a 16-point fourth quarter, compared to only 23 total second-half points for the hometown Bengals. West improved to 2-1, while Helena fell to 0-2.
Billings Skyview 63, Helena Capital 53
Zakai Owens finished with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds — to go along with two assists and three blocked shots — to help Billings Skyview to a 63-53 win at Helena Capital.
Willes Frederick added 18 points, six rebounds and two assists to help the Falcons (1-2) get their first win of the season.
Capital (0-2) senior Kyler Meredith ended his first home game of the year with 12 points, three dimes and four boards in the loss, and fellow senior and future Montana Tech Oredigger Cole Dawes would get close to a double-double, scoring 12 points and adding nine boards to a night where the Bruins struggled from the field.
