BILLINGS — While one streak was snapped this weekend in the Montana-Wyoming All-Star Basketball Series, another lives on.
The Montana girls pushed head coach Wes Keller's record in the annual series to 17-1 with their 15th consecutive win, a 76-35 victory Saturday at the Lockwood High School gym.
Wyoming's boys, a night after snapping a 22-game losing streak to their Treasure State counterparts, were able to pull off their first sweep in the series in 13 years with a 94-85 win in the second half of the doubleheader.
Montana girls 76, Wyoming 35
A night after running to a 22-point win, the girls from the Treasure State put together another rousing victory Saturday to extend their winning streak in the Midland Roundtable's annual Montana-Wyoming All-Star Basketball Series.
Taylee Chirrick of Roberts and Paige Wasson of Saco-Whitewater-Hinsdale each had 14 points and Montana posted a 76-35 triumph over Wyoming at the Lockwood High School Gym, raising their winning streak to 15 in a row in the yearly border battle.
Wasson, who with all-star teammate Teagan Erickson won consecutive state titles in Class C at Saco-Whitewater-Hinsdale, said the Treasure State squad put together a more complete effort as opposed to Friday night in Gillette, Wyo., a 90-68 victory.
"I think we came out stronger today," said Wasson, who hit a pair of 3-pointers. "Yesterday we came out a little bit slow, but today we came out pretty strong. We got a quick lead and just kept building on it."
Montana led 24-9 after the first quarter and never relented. The advantage grew to 38-19 at halftime.
Billings West teammates Kourtney Grossman and Halle Haber had 10 and nine points, respectively, for the Montana All-Stars, though everyone reached the scoring column as they completed the weekend sweep and kept intact their winning streak.
"It was pretty cool to keep the streak, but we weren't really thinking about that," Wasson said. "Every time we went on the floor we were just thinking that the game is 0-0 and that we just have to play our hardest the whole game."
The Wyoming All-Stars made just 11 total field goals. Cheyenne East's Bradie Schlabs led the team with 16 points.
Erickson, Chinook's Hallie Neibauer and Missoula Hellgate's Chloe Larson each had six points for Montana. Roy-Winifred Isabelle Heggem added five, and Frenchtown's Sadie Smith had four. Missoula Sentinel's Emily McElmurry chipped in two points.
Wes Keller, the head coach at Rocky Mountain College, is now 17-1 in the series as coach of the Montana All-Stars.
Montana now leads the all-time series 41-13. Wyoming's last win came on June 10, 2016, a 71-64 victory.
Wyoming boys 94, Montana 85
Wyoming used a monster second-quarter surge to pull away from Montana and pick up its first sweep in the annual series since 2011.
Wyoming trailed 23-19 after the first quarter but unloaded an 18-1 run in the second quarter to grab a commanding 53-36 lead at the break.
“It’s a little bit hard to come together with guys you’ve never played with before and make stuff happen, but when you’ve got a group of guys that we have where all 10 are hoopers you just know at some point it’s going to click. When it does it’s dangerous,” said Wyoming guard Sammy Shumway of Cheyenne Central.
Montana slowly began to chip away, and a 3-pointer by Bozeman’s Kellen Harrison trimmed the deficit to six early in the fourth quarter. But back-to-back triples from Wyoming extended the lead back to double figures.
Montana wouldn’t go away, though, as the lead was trimmed to five with five minutes to play, but Wyoming promptly pushed the lead back to 16 by the three-minute mark.
Sheridan High's Garrett Spielman, Green River's Tharan Archibald and Wyoming Gatorade player of the year Joe Sawyer of Cheyenne Central each had 16 points to lead Wyoming. Frenchtown’s Eli Quinn poured in 25 to lead Montana.
Montana’s lead in the all-time series now stands at 67-29.
