Whitehall wins regular season crown

Just moments after a 54-46 win over Townsend Friday night in Varsity Gym, Whitehall High School boys basketball head coach Zach McLean said any win in the tough Southern 5B League is a huge win. It turns out Whitehall had more than anyone in the league during the 2016-17 regular season.

With the season sweep of the Bulldogs, the Trojans (14-4, 8-2 Southern 5B League) won the outright league title and will open next week's District Tournament in Belgrade with the number one seed. Whitehall will open the tournament Friday against the winner of fourth seeded Manhattan and fifth seeded Boulder. The Trojans split the season series against Manhattan and swept the rival Panthers. The game is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Belgrade Events Center.

The huge league victory against second place Townsend was not easy.

In the first quarter, McLean took a timeout to air his frustrations with his team.

McLean said he told them they were playing selfish and they needed to get back to doing all the small things they needed to do to win the game.

The Whitehall players listened. After trailing 25-23 at halftime, the Trojans gave up just eight points in the third quarter and took an eight-point lead into the fourth.

McLean said after the timeout the game changed, and the kids started going for lose balls and played really good defense.

He said the Bulldogs are a really good team and he's very happy they held them to just 46 points.

Andrew Simon and Max Feight each had a game high 15 points. Townsend did not have a player in double figures. Braden Larsen added 13, Wyatt Alexander had eight, and Colton Noyes finished with three points.