Trojans stay alive at Divisional Tournament

By JACK H. SMITH

Ledger Publisher

It's all about survive and advance for the Whitehall High School boys basketball team.

One night after a tough 55-46 loss late Thursday night to Roundup in the opening round of the Southern B Divisional Tournament in Billings, the Trojans rebounded Friday afternoon with a 62-48 win over Shepherd High School.

With the win, Whitehall kept their season and hopes at a spot in the state tournament alive, and will play Saturday morning in the loser out consolation semifinals at 10:30 a.m. They will face the loser of the Friday evening semifinal matchup between Lodge Grass and Joliet. Unlike their first two games, the Saturday contest will not take place at the MetraPark Arena, and will instead be played at Rocky Mountain College. If the Trojans are victorious, they will play for a chance at third place and a spot in the state tournament. The consolation finals will take place at the MetraPark at 5 p.m.

Moments after the loss Thursday to the Panthers, Whitehall Head Coach Zach McLean told his team to put the loss in the rearview mirror.

"At this tournament you are fortunate, you can fight back. It's our goal to get third. They've got to forget about it and move on to the next game," McLean said.

Much like it had the night before against Roundup, the Trojans grabbed an early lead Friday afternoon and took a 12-6 lead into the second quarter. After scoring just two points Thursday night, junior Wyatt Alexander came out of the gates strong with five of his team high 17 points in the opening quarter. The Mustangs would score on their opening possession of the second, but an Andrew Simon three pointer would push the lead to seven for Whitehall. He would hit another three a minute later to put his team up 22-10. Behind a balanced scoring attack, Whitehall would take a 32-18 lead into the half.

Shepherd would make things interesting at the start of the third quarter, and would pull to within seven before Whitehall would once again start rolling to take a 49-36 lead at the end of three.

Simon and Braden Larsen also had double figures with 14 and 10 respectively. Max Feight finished with nine, Braden Smith had six, Cade Briggs pitched in four and Ryan Murphy added two points.

McLean said that having Alexander with the big game was huge. He said that often times teams will try to stop Larsen going to the hole and Feight from the outside, so having Alexander step up was a big x-factor for his team.

McLean also lauded the play of Smith and Murphy who both had big minutes for Whitehall. He said Murphy provided a spark with rebounding and doing the little things.

Looking to tonight's matchup of Lodge Grass and Joliet, McLean said the two squads are polar opposites, but they would be scouting during the game and will come out with a game plan following.

Simon and Larsen both led Whitehall with 14 Thursday night against Roundup.

The Trojans led by as many as eight in the third quarter and had a 36-30 lead going into the fourth.

McLean said much like in the finals of the District 5B Tournament when Whitehall squandered an eight -point lead in final three minutes of Townsend, the fourth quarter was once again a sore spot for his squad.

He said Roundup didn't do anything his team had not seen, they just made plays and Whitehall didn't.