BILLINGS — The Billings Central and Dillon boys basketball programs are well-acquainted with one another.
Dillon beat Billings Central in the first round of last year’s Class A state tournament, and the Rams upended Dillon in the 2021 championship game.
The teams have a semifinal date at this year’s state tourney as both won first-round games Thursday at First Interstate Arena.
Central defeated Ronan 65-50 and Dillon followed with a 70-50 win over East Helena.
Browning made its coach, D.J. Fish, a winner again for the first time 2008 at Metra, with a hard-fought comeback win 49-44 over Glendive. And Lockwood, playing in its first state-tournament game, had its own come-from-behind win in a 60-55 victory over Frenchtown.
Central and Dillon will tip off the semifinals at 6:30 p.m. Friday. Lockwood and Browning will follow with the second semifinal at 8.
In loser-out play, Ronan takes on East Helena at noon and Glendive plays Frenchtown at 1:30 p.m.
Billings Central 65, Ronan 50
It’s been three seasons since the Central boys basketball team hadn’t reached the Class A state semifinals.
Three straight years of a first-round loss on the biggest stage.
The Rams ended that streak at the expense of the Chiefs by forging an early lead and slowly but surely extending it to keep Ronan at a comfortable distance.
Up next: A chance to reach another state title game, which the Rams last did in 2021 when they won it all.
“We’re glad we got the win, but for Central basketball, you know, we’re always looking to keep making the next step,” said Rams sophomore Gunnar Larsen, whose two-handed breakaway dunk with just under 1:30 to play essentially drove the point home that the game was in hand. “We’re glad to get this, but we’re just going to be watching film of whoever wins this next game and prepare for that.”
Howie Martin led the Rams with 16 points. Darcy Merchant Jr. added 15 and Larsen finished with 14.
Ronan trailed by double digits for virtually all the second half. The Chiefs tried to whittle the deficit down and got it to nine with under two minutes to play, but the Rams had an answer each time.
“Well, we just withheld,” said Central coach Jim Stergar, who started his career as the Ronan head coach and said that the last time these two programs met was when he was on the Chiefs’ sidelines in 2002. “I mean, we kind of grinded it out.”
The message from both Stergar and his players was that the “best is still to come” from the Rams.
“We just have to stay in the moment,” Merchant Jr. said. “Everyone’s here for everyone, we’ve all got each other’s backs. It’s a culture here and really, it’s irreplaceable. I think the best is yet to come for us.”
Kolby Finley led the Chiefs with 16 points and Laurance Lozeau chipped in with 13.
Dillon 70, East Helena 50
Defending champion Dillon hasn’t lost to a Class A opponent this season, and with only this final weekend standing in the Beavers’ way of a repeat title, this is no time to start doing that.
The first domino in Dillon’s way to fall was East Helena, a program making its first state-appearance in the four-year history of its varsity basketball program.
The win marked Dillon’s 19th straight this season after suffering its lone loss early this season to Class AA Butte.
“Winning all these games is good in a row, but I think we have the mindset that it really doesn’t matter,” Dillon senior Carter Curnow said. “Obviously, we want to advance but I think it’s just a one-game-at-a-time mentality. We have to just keep getting after it.”
Curnow got after it to the tune of 17 points and 11 rebounds, seven of those offensive. Kyler Engellant added 15 points and 13 rebounds (also seven offensive rebounds) and Cohen Hartman contributed 11 points.
Dillon had a highly efficient first quarter, scoring 21 points. When the offense slowed a bit, the Beavers tightened their defense in the second quarter and held the Vigilantes to nine points, which included a 3-pointer by Andrew Maxness just before the halftime buzzer.
East Helena outshot Dillon in those first two quarters; the Vigilantes hit 50% to Dillon’s 47%. But Dillon hit the offensive glass hard, and second-chance points helped the Beavers build a double-digit lead by halftime.
Dillon finished with 21 offensive rebounds and 42 overall; East Helena was credited with 10 total rebounds.
“If we give teams just one shot, they’re not going to get a lot done,” Engellant said. “Offensively, I think we just crashed the glass really well. We weren’t hitting a lot of shots that we usually hit, but our rebounding … Carter was working his (butt) off on the rebounds.”
DeonDray Ellis and Maxness hit some tough shots early in the third quarter to try and keep the Vigilantes in at 36-30 and 39-35. Dillon, though, regained control with a 16-3 run to end the third quarter. Ellis finished with 21 points and Maxness scored 13 for East Helena.
Now, it’s time for Dillon and Billings Central to get reacquainted, a non-conference rivalry that extends beyond basketball for these two schools.
“It’s one of those games that you kind of circle on the calendar now that it’s on there,” said Dillon coach Jeff Edwards, whose team ended the 42-game winning streak of Class B power Missoula Loyola back in December. “It’s like one of those old-school, 15-round heavyweight fights. It’s one of those things when our guys put their blue and gold on when they’re little, we want to play Billings Central. And I’m sure the same thing is for them.”
Browning 49, Glendive 44
Fish, Browning’s second-year coach, last was in the Metra building when he was the MVP of the 2008 Class A state tournament, leading Browning to a championship win over Butte Central.
But this experience is all new to his team. Browning is making its first state appearance since the 2019-20 season.
“It’s been maybe 14 years since I’ve been in this building, and when I walked in, I was like, ‘Oh, it’s so good to be back,’ “ Fish said. “Looked around, saw the stands and just imagine, you know, all of our fans that are going to make it down that were here tonight and going to make it down (Friday) and then, hopefully, Saturday if we play our cards right.”
The cards didn’t go Browning’s way for more than three quarters. It wasn’t until a three-point play by Jude Reevis early in the fourth that Browning, which trailed by as many as 11 points, got its first lead, 37-36, the Indians’ Noah Butterfly scored the first basket of the game.
Browning, which received seven points and 10 rebounds from Tristan Crawford, held on from there, surviving several anxious stretches as Glendive attempted its own comeback.
“You have to have a great mindset to come back in games like that,” said Reevis, who scored 20 second-half points to give him 26 on the night. “We’ve been through a few games like that where we just started out slow and eventually found our rhythm, kept going and eventually found the lead.”
Levi Eaton led Glendive with 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Ethan Rivas finished with 10 points. The Red Devils didn’t do themselves any favors by missing seven consecutive free throws early in the fourth quarter.
The question for Browning now is how many winning cards do they have left?
“We definitely got our spark, but it was kind of late in the game,” said Butterfly, who scored 10 points. “We started out slow, a little rocky, but like DJ said, none of us have (state) experience. (But) we all knew we were going to come out of it and finish strong at the end.”
Lockwood 60, Frenchtown 55
Lockwood’s state-tournament debut — the Lions’ program is in its fourth varsity season — was a wild ride.
The Lions trailed by as many as 14 in the first half, but found a way to overcome the Broncs in the fourth quarter and walk away with the win.
Frenchtown’s Cooper Michaud made all four of his 3-point attempts and scored 17 points in the first half, but the Lions held him to just three points the rest of the way for his game-high 20. The Broncs, who had just five turnovers at the break, wound up with 18 by game’s end as the Lions increased their pressure.
“It looked like we didn’t scout at all in that first half. I promise you, we did,” Lockwood coach Bobby Anderson deadpanned. “We knew (Michaud) could shoot and we knew Hank (Smith, who had eight points and eight rebounds in the first half) would dominate the block. It took us probably 17 minutes to get our feet underneath us, which is too long come the state tournament.”
Just as Michaud did in the first half for the Broncs, Kobe Blake did for the Lions in the fourth quarter. He scored eight of the Lions’ points during a 10-4 run that put them in the lead for good at 55-51 with 3:40 to play.
“Shout out to my teammates for getting me the ball,” said Blake, who also had four assists and two steals. “I feel like them, you know, being the players they are, letting me get an advantage because they create more opportunities for me. I thank them a lot for that, so I can’t really take all the credit for it.”
Blake finished with 17 points, while Zicciah Callison-Blake (11 points), Gabe Ronquillo (10) and Nate Davis (10) also reached double figures. Jude Barnett came with with 12 rebounds as the Lions began to clean the glass in the second half.
It was an historic win for the Lions’ program, to be sure. But that wasn’t what they wanted to talk about. There’s more business to attend to, Anderson and Blake said, starting with Friday’s semifinal with Browning.
Expect and embrace chaos, Anderson said.
“It’s going to be fun, it’s going to be loud, it’s going to be rowdy,” Anderson said.
