MISSOULA -- The Missoula Sentinel Spartans defeated the Butte Bulldogs 71-55 on Saturday afternoon in Sentinel's gym in the boys basketball consolation game of the Western AA divisional tournament.
Both teams qualify for state: Sentinel will enter next week's tournament in Bozeman as the No. 3 seed from the Western AA, while Butte will be the No. 4.
PHOTOS: MISSOULA SENTINEL CRUISES TO 3RD-PLACE VICTORY OVER BUTTE BULLDOGS
In the first quarter, Sentinel came out on an offensive surge as it began the game on a 13-6 run. In the second quarter, the Butte Bulldogs had some big shots fall from Andrew Booth as he converted two 3s to pull the Bulldogs within 11.
From there, the Spartans pulled away as Tony Frohlich-Fair hit two consecutive 3-pointers to give the Spartans a commanding 35-16 lead with 1:58 left in the half. Sentinel outscored Butte 25-14 in the second quarter to take a 41-20 lead into the locker room.
In the second half, Butte outscored the Spartans 35-30, but it was not enough to recover from the first half.
Frohlich-Fair ended with a game-high 23 points for the Spartans on 9-for-11 shooting from the field while also going 2 for 3 from beyond the arc. Alex Germer added 10 more points, going 5 for 6 from the free throw line.
As a team, Sentinel shot 23 for 42 from the field and 5 for 18 from beyond the arc. The Spartans also got to free throw line 30 times and converted on 20 of those attempts.
Booth scored a team-high 17 points on 5-for-10 shooting from the field for Butte. As a team, Butte finished going 16 for 46 from the field and 11 for 28 from beyond the arc.
