BOZEMAN — The Bozeman Hawks girls basketball team has been preparing for divisionals all of conference play.
“I think we’ve had a really great conference season. You know, we only lose three games and those three games were against the top two teams,” girls basketball head coach Erika Gustavsen said. “Every time we’ve played those top two teams it was very competitive, so I’m really pleased with how our conference season went.”
And the Hawks might see those teams they lost to once again, but first they must get past Great Falls CMR on Thursday.
“I think the nice part with divisionals is, we’ve already played everybody twice, so you’ve got a pretty good feel,” Gustavsen added. “I mean, we have a lot of film clipped, we’ve got a lot of notes, so, you know, we’ve prepped for everybody. So, it’s definitely one game at a time.”
So what is the biggest strength the Hawks have heading into the weekend?
“Probably our heart,” senior Ayla Embry said. “Everybody wants to win, everybody is a competitor, and so I think that’s one of our biggest advantages we have.”
On the boys side, they are sitting at 8-4 in conference play, but head coach Wes Holmquist says it’s a stacked set of teams.
“I think the biggest thing is, our conference is so tough top to bottom,” Holmquist said. “There’s five teams kind of at the top, but the two bottom teams have kind of played everybody tough. … I mean, we got beat by Billings Senior last Saturday and they’ve only won one conference game all year, so you have to be ready to go at any given time.”
“I’m more focused on us right now. You know, whoever we’re playing, when you get to these tournaments you’re going to have to play three teams in three days probably, so we’re not throwing all of our eggs in one basket. We’re focused on what we need to do to be successful,” Holmquist finished.
And for the three-time state runners-up, victory in the postseason is certainly the sweetest.
“Everyone on this team, they all want this so bad, and we’ve all worked so hard to get where we’re at, and we all know what we have to do to finish this season strong,” junior Jackson Coles said.
