BOZEMAN — On Friday night, round two of the new Bozeman rivalry between the Bozeman Hawks and the Gallatin Raptors took place. The Raptors took game one back on Jan. 14, upsetting the Hawks 62-60.
Bozeman wouldn't make the same mistake twice to their new rival, showing no mercy and going on to win 79-55.
"We came out focused, we came out ready to play," said Bozeman junior Ty Huse. "We practiced for this, we've been looking forward to this game, we've been anticipating it and that's what's driven us to work hard in practice."
Although their was small student sections and only two people allowed per player and coach, the new Gallatin High School sounded like a packed house with every made bucket.
Gallatin gave Bozeman a hard fought first quarter, at one point the Raptors were down 13-6, but went on a 6-0 run to pull within one-point. However Bozeman would end the quarter on a five-point run of their own to take an 18-12 lead.
In the second quarter Bozeman caught fire, hitting five shots from outside the arc, outscoring Gallatin 19-12 to take a commanding 37-24 lead heading into the half. Ty Huse led all scorers with nine points at the break.
Bozeman would never give the lead back and win 79-55.
Raptors' sophomore Eli Hunter had a game-high with 23 points on the night. Hawks' junior Ty Huse had a team-high 17 points.
A big key for Bozeman's win was shutting down Gallatin's junior big-man Rylan Schlepp. In game one, Schlepp had a team-high 14 points. In game two, the Hawks limited him to only seven.
With the state tournament around the corner, Huse knows they can't celebrate this win for long.
"Don't look back, don't dwell on these wins," said Huse. "We just got to look forward and keep working and forget about the wins and look at every game like it's our first game and we got to prove ourselves every single game."
