Crosstown Basketball: GFH, CMR meet for second time
Answering questions Wednesday afternoon at the Great Falls High’s Old Gymnasium, junior guard Kody Torgerson had a mostly blank look on his face.
That’s until he was asked about his excitement level leading up to Thursday night’s crosstown game against C.M. Russell High, slated for 7:30 at CMR Fieldhouse.
Torgerson’s face lit up, smiling ear to ear, saying simply: “I am pretty excited.”
Prodded, he explained why.
CMR auctioning off Broncos gear for crosstown family
“It’s crosstown. There’s no better game.”
Thursday’s rematch comes less than a month after the Bison’s 62-49 win over the Rustlers at Swarthout Fieldhouse, where Brendan Howard’s 17 second-half points helped push the home team past the visitors in what was just a one-point game at halftime.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Torgerson said. “We are confident about the game and what we can do. We’ve got a good opportunity to get a good conference win, and a good win for the whole team.”
Kendall Kynett, Riley Watt and Torgerson combined for nearly half of the Bison’s scoring. The trio tallied 30 points.
“That’s too much,” CMR head coach John Cislo said. “If those kids score 30 and then (Brendan) gets his 20, we are in 50s now and we’re a team that has to keep the game in the high 40s, low 50s for an opportunity.
“We have to work hard. We have to box them out, we have to go get boards, know where he’s at, we have to communicate and if we can do that I think we have as good a chance as anybody.”
Meet the Athlete: CMR's Xavier Pace
The Rustlers (4-11, 1-6) have won just one game since that loss Jan. 14 and have been on the wrong end of things in six straight. Karl Tucker II and Sam Vining continue to be the catalysts offensively for a team that has been competitive in most games but unable to get over the hump.
“We just have to learn how to finish,” Tucker II said. “We need to learn how to win again.”
For Tucker II, the senior point guard who’s averaging more than 15 points per game, this could be his last crosstown game of his career.
“The atmosphere is like any other you play in high school,” Tucker II said, “so I’m definitely going to miss that. It’s a tradition thing to win this game for your peers and the high school, so it’s definitely a big one.”
Great Falls High (9-6, 4-3) has won three of its last four contests, including a much-needed overtime triumph Saturday over Billings West. The Bison have taken three straight games from the Rustlers in the past year-plus.
“CMR’s a good team,” GFH head coach Bob Howard said. “It’s always a big game, the CMR-Great Falls game. We have a lot of things to worry about, a lot of things to figure out and hopefully we come out ready to play.”
Thursday night could mark the return of starting Bison guard Daniel Silverstein, who’s been sidelined the last 11 games because of a broken hand. When he went out, Silverstein was the team’s second-leading scorer at over 12 points per game.
“He’ll dress,” Howard said. “He’s cleared to play, so we’ll see.”
The crowd at CMR Fieldhouse figures to be near capacity. How both teams handle the atmosphere might be a key factor in deciding the outcome of the game.
Tucker II sure thinks so.
“Nerves are going to be there,” he said. “It’s whoever’s able to control themselves more is going to win the game.”