Dillon 52, Hamilton 37
HAMILTON — The Dillon Beavers locked up the No. 1 seed from the Western A heading into the State A girls basketball tournament as they topped Hamilton 52-37 on Saturday evening at Hamilton High School to win the Western A Divisional championship game.
Lauryn Petersen led Dillon with 18 points and Ainsley Shipman added 13 points for the Beavers in the win.
Hamilton led 25-21 at the halftime break but Dillon scored 19 points in the third quarter to head into the four quarter up 40-32 and ran away from there.
Hamilton will take the No. 2 seed into state. Layne Kearns led the Broncs with 15 points while Taryn Searle added 13.
Browning beat Columbia Falls 56-44 in the third place game at the Western A Divisional, so Browning will take the No. 3 seed from Western A into state while the Wildkats will be No. 4. Butte Central won the fifth-place game 56-32 against Stevensville to earn the No. 5 seed.
The State A tournament is in Missoula March 9-12.
Butte Central 63, Dillon 47
Behind 28 points from Dougie Peoples, Butte Central clinched the No. 1 seed at the State A tournament and the Western A Divisional crown with a 63-47 victory over Dillon.
Eric Loos added 13 points for the Maroons and Bryson Sestrich added 10. Butte Central jumped out to an 18-6 lead at the end of the first quarter and led 36-18 at halftime.
Connor Curnow led Dillon with 19 points. The Beavers will be the No. 2 seed from the Western A heading into state.
Polson topped Hamilton 40-36 in the third-place game, so the Pirates will be the No. 3 seed and the Broncs will take the No. 4 seed into state. Frenchtown earned the fifth and final seed with a victory over Browning 57-47 in the fifth-place game.
