Great Falls High boys, girls at home Friday

The Great Falls High boys’ and girls’ basketball teams have put their best foot forward of late.

Now all they have to do is avoid stubbing their toe.

“I think it’s hard to beat a (Class) AA team any night out,” said Bison boys’ head coach Bob Howard, whose team hosts Billings Senior on Friday at Swarthout Fieldhouse for a berth in the state tournament next week in Butte. The girls also play the Broncs, before the boys, at 5:30. The boys’ game will follow 20 minutes after.

“We are going to have our work cut out for us. It’s a brand new season and we don’t take anything for granted,” Howard said.

The truth is, the Bison boys (13-7 overall) are the overwhelming favorites. Winners of six of their last seven, Great Falls High has beaten Senior (5-15) twice in as many tries this season, by a margin of 17.5 points per game.

Sophomore post Brendan Howard, who averages 20.9 points and 10.8 rebounds per game, isn’t taking the Broncs lightly, though.

The Bison, in a No. 4 vs. No. 5 matchup like this one, traveled to Bozeman a season ago and defeated the Hawks on their home floor for a spot in the state tournament.

“Last year, and the last couple years, we’ve been the team to go on the road,” Brendan Howard said. “We hadn’t really performed in the regular season, but we’d come out and win a playoff game. So we just have to keep focus.”

The Bison, who are averaging 74.7 points per game during this stretch, are coming off an impressive win over Billings West on Saturday.

“We are playing good basketball at the right time,” Brendan Howard said. “We are playing as a team right now.”

One of the reasons for that is Jake Wetzel, the deadly shooter from behind the arc. At one point this season, the senior was shooting around 30 percent on treys. He is now at a 43.7 percent clip and leads the state in made triples (49).

“We can’t overlook them at all because they are a threat,” Wetzel said. “It’s hard to beat a team three times in a row in a season. … Can’t take anything for granted. Just have to go out there and play our game. And execute, that’s really what it’s going to come down to.”

The Bison are a senior-laden squad with four starters in their final year with the team.

“It’s our last shot as group together,” Wetzel said. “People are going to go their separate ways in basketball or just college in general. … This is our last chance to go out there and really prove what we’re made of as seniors and just as a team.”

The girls’ game figures to match two more evenly talented teams against each other.

Great Falls High (11-9 overall) had its five-game winning streak snapped on Saturday in a game against Billings West, a game that, if the Bison had won, would have given them the No. 2 seed; instead, they are the No. 4 when they battle the No. 5 seed Broncs (12-8) on Friday.

“I think at the beginning of the season there were only two goals,” GFH head coach Gregg Dart said, “either one, get the No. 1 seed and get in, or figure out a way to have a home playoff game. So we accomplished one of those tasks and now we just have to take care of business (Friday).”

The Bison and Broncs split their two-game regular season series — Senior defeated Great Falls High at Swarthout 58-50 back on Feb. 7. The Bison won a week ago, in Billings, 65-47.

Bison sophomore point guard Hannah Collins will be playing in her first playoff game. She is a little nervous, she explained, but she is excited to experience the environment inside Swarthout on Friday evening.

The team’s mentality, even with the West loss, hasn’t wavered, Collins said.

“I definitely think we still have our confidence,” she said. “We’ve been encouraging each other since then. We know that, in order to win games, we just need to play together and we will be fine.”

The Broncs of head coach Drew Haws boast several experienced and talented guards and 6-foot-2 post Taylor Mims.

“I think Senior is going to come in here and really get after it,” Dart said. “They have five seniors on their team who have never not been to the state tournament, four of whom who start, so I’m pretty sure those girls are going to come in here ready to go.”

Dart talked Thursday to his team about whether this was going to be its last practice of the season, or if it will extend the season for one more week.

“(There’s) still a lot of pressure, because we would love to get to state and love to have an opportunity to play more basketball,” Dart said.