Trojans open district tournament with Manhattan

The third-seeded Whitehall High School boys basketball team will open the 5B District Tournament Thursday in Belgrade at 4:30 p.m. against sixth-seeded Manhattan.

While the Trojans (7-11, 5-5 District 5B) swept the Tigers during the regular season, head coach Zach McLean said that does not mean anything come tournament time and his team needs to focus on their Thursday game at the Belgrade Events Center.

He added there are two really good teams at the top of the conference, but the rest of the squads are pretty good as well.

"I don't think there is a 'gimme' game in this tournament. You have to come out ready to go," McLean said.

TOWNSEND

The second verse was far different then the first for Whitehall basketball team.

After losing on the road 46-32 to Townsend on January 11, the Trojans were the far superior team in the rematch picking up a 56-31 home win Tuesday night.

"They came out focused and ready to go. I feel like they came out with a chip on their shoulder from what happened the last time in Townsend," McLean said.

Whitehall would come out of the gates quickly and built an early 19-3 lead sparked by two three-pointers from freshman Brendan Wagner and strong play from senior guard Cade Briggs.

Whitehall would lead 32-12 and push the lead to as many as 30 in the second half.

had a said they had a game plan to play man-to-man defense and the team executed it well.

"Their effort was great," he said.

Briggs led the team with 22 points, Clay Wolfe had 15, Wagner added eight, Dylan Smith finished with six, Hayden Hoagland chipped in four points and Bo Hays added one.

In action Saturday, the Trojans fell on the road 50-37 to undefeated and top ranked Manhattan Christian. It was also much different for Whitehall then their first matchup against the Eagles who won 65-25 in the season opener in Varsity Gym. The Trojans went stride for stride for stride with Christian through the first three quarters and trailed by just three 34-31 going into the final quarter.

Wolfe was the teams leading scorer with 11 and Briggs was also in double figures with 10. Wagner added eight, Smith had seven and Hoagland added one point.

Montana State signee Caleb Bellach led Christian in scoring with a game high 30 points.