BILLINGS -- The Big Timber and Colstrip girls basketball teams will meet on Saturday night for the Southern B divisional title. Big Timber rallied to defeat Forsyth in a Friday semifinal, while Colstrip stymied Roundup to advance.
Big Timber 51, Forsyth 45
Big Timber used a 17-4 run to open the fourth quarter to get separation from Forsyth on its way to a 51-45 win in the semifinals of the Southern B divisional tournament on Friday inside First Interstate Arena at MetraPark in Billings. Big Timber punches its ticket to the State B tournament in Butte next weekend.
Forsyth led 33-32 after three quarters, but Big Timber opened the fourth quarter by burying three consecutive 3-point attempts to grab a 41-33 lead and force a Forsyth timeout. The Sheepherders stayed hot, seeing their lead grow to 49-37 with less than four minutes to play.
"Matter of time," Big Timber head coach Kim Finn said of the Herders' timely shooting. "We led the conference on our side in made 3s, so I knew we could make them if we kept shooting. It's good that they made them (Friday). Fourth quarter is always a good quarter for us, so I said the fourth quarter was our quarter. They showed it was again (Friday)."
Forsyth wasn't done yet, though, as the Dogies rallied to trim the lead to 49-45 with less than 45 seconds to play, but ultimately Forsyth ran out of time for its comeback attempt. Big Timber's Bailey Finn drilled a pair of free throws with under 15 ticks to play to ice the game.
Forsyth built a 23-19 first-half lead behind 6-foot-6 junior Lindsey Hein. Hein would have a strong second half, too, but the Dogies didn't get enough contributions from their other starters to combat Big Timber's explosiveness. Hein finished with 22 points for Forsyth.
Bailey Finn led all scorers with 26 points, including knocking down six 3-pointers. Finn also had five steals. Big Timber hit nine 3-pointers in the game, six of those coming in the second half.
Big Timber will play in Saturday night's title game against Colstrip..
"Lot of joy, lot of relief. We knew we could do it, we just had to play together, play hard, aggressive and not back down. The girls did everything I asked them to do. Great game," Kim Finn said. "Everybody is after us, because we haven't lost a game. I just expect a lot of intense basketball and we'll just try to match them and play our game."
Colstrip 39, Roundup 32
Colstrip put the clamps on Roundup in the final semifinal Friday night at the Southern B divisional tournament, as the Fillies shut down the Panthers in a 39-32 win. Colstrip advances to the State B tournament and will face Big Timber in Saturday's title game.
Colstrip started the game red hot and led 15-4 early in the second quarter, but Roundup hit a flurry of 3-point attempts to close the first half to trail 20-13 at the break.
And then the Roundup offense went ice cold. The Panthers couldn't buy a basket from anywhere on the floor the entire second half. Colstrip eventually saw its lead grow to 18 in the fourth quarter, but Roundup would close the game on a 13-2 run to end with the seven-point difference.
Roundup was forced to settle for jump shots all game, shooting 9 of 29 from downtown but just 1 of 12 inside the arc.
Bailey Egan had a double-double of 14 points and 14 rebounds to lead Colstrip. Blythe Sealey had 11 points to lead Roundup.
Colstrip and Big Timber are slated to tip at 8 p.m. Saturday. Roundup will play Columbus at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in loser-out action.
