ST. IGNATIUS -- The St. Ignatius Bulldogs boys and girls basketball teams earned sweeps over Troy on Tuesday night in the District 7B play-in games.
The girls began the evening with a 60-25 win over the Trojans. Azia Umphrey led the Bulldogs with 18 points while Kooper Page scored 14. Talise Becquart scored eight points to lead Troy.
St. Ignatius was the No. 4 seed to start the District 7B tournament while Troy was No. 5. Troy's season comes to an end while St. Ignatius advances to take on top-seeded Thompson Falls on Thursday on the road in the tournament semifinals. However, the top four remaining teams advance to next week's Western B divisional tournament in Hamilton. With the win, St. Ignatius secured its spot in that tournament and each game in the 7B now determines seeding for the divisional tournament. Bigfork is the No. 2 seed for the girls while Eureka is the third seed.
The boys game was an 83-24 victory in favor of St. Ignatius. Four Bulldogs players scored in double figures as Kolten Gardipee, Ross McPherson and Jedi Christy each scored 13 points for St. Ignatius. Troy trailed 18-11 at the end of the first quarter before St. Ignatius took full control of the game and went into halftime up 41-14 and never looked back.
Ricki Fisher led Troy with nine points.
Similar to the girls, St. Ignatius was the No. 4 seed on Tuesday in the District 7B tournament while Troy was fifth. The win guarantees St. Ignatius will play in the Western B divisional and the Bulldogs now play for better seeding. They take on No. 1 Bigfork on Thursday while Thompson Falls and Eureka will play in the other semifinal.
