Prep Notebook: Fort Benton Tipoff begins Friday

Class C basketball hits another gear this weekend when the Fort Benton Tipoff Tournament begins Friday at 2 in the afternoon.

“It’s a good tournament,” Fort Benton athletic director Bob Schoonover said. “It’s good because with the two gyms we are able to run a JV tournament, too, so all the kids get to play.”

Friday’s varsity games include the Centerville boys against Sunburst, then at 3:45 the Fort Benton girls face Simms, followed by the Centerville girls and Sunburst at 5:30 and the nightcap of the Fort Benton boys vs. Simms at 7:15. The tournament concludes Saturday.

“Our girls are pretty experienced,” Schoonover said of Fort Benton. “They had a good season last year, and I would expect them to have another good season this year.”

Meanwhile, the Sunburst Refiners of head coach Nate Aschim are coming off a memorable season in which they finished third at the Northern C Divisional Tournament in Great Falls, concluding the year at 23-1 overall.

Junior post Treyton Pickering is back for another campaign after averaging 17 points and eight rebounds per game last season and is considered one of the top performers in Class C.

The Longhorn boys’ squad doesn’t have a Treyton Pickering, but Schoonover believes it will be a competitive nonetheless. But it might take some time.

“Our boys’ team is going to be young,” said Schoonover, a 1966 graduate of Fort Benton who played college football at Montana State-Northern. “We have two seniors and two juniors. The rest are sophomores, freshmen and eighth-graders, we brought up some eighth-graders. So they’ll be young, but they’ve been working hard.”

The Miner girls, meanwhile, finished last season at 15-10 and look to be contenders once again after their season-opening win over Winnett-Grass Range last weekend, sparked by Cecilia Vielle’s game-high 20 points.

“Centerville will definitely be solid,” Schoonover said. “They have good size and good experience coming back.”

The Centerville boys are 1-0 after Todd Klasner’s team dispatched WGR 66-49 on Saturday night. Leading the way was freshman Carson McGinness, who totaled 18 markers.

Simms girls’ basketball coach Truitt Kinna and the Tigers are 2-0 on the season, with wins against Augusta and Valier. Janessa Willekes had a game-high 15 markers against the Panthers. On the boys’ side, Jaren Smerker had 30 points in a 75-25 win for the Tigers over Augusta, but his team fell to 1-1 on Saturday with a 65-50 setback at the hands of Valier.

This weekend’s games will be the first of the season for both Fort Benton teams.

THE MINING CITY DUALS commence this Friday in Butte.

It is the 29th edition of the event and begins at 10 a.m. and runs through Saturday. All 14 Class AA schools are scheduled to participate, as well as other smaller schools.

Both Great Falls High and C.M. Russell High fared well at the Havre Invitational on Saturday, taking second and fourth place, respectively.

A year ago, the powerful Havre Blue Ponies won the annual tournament in Butte, topping Billings Skvyiew for the title.

OTHER ACTION this weekend includes home girls’ basketball games for both CMR and GFH.

The Rustlers of head coach Brian Crosby, 0-1 on the season after a loss to Helena Capital, welcome Kalispell Flathead to CMR Fieldhouse on Friday at 7:30.

The Bison, led by second-year mentor Jerry Schmitz, are at Swarthout Fieldhouse, also at 7:30, for a clash with Helena Capital. GFH began its season last weekend with a setback to Helena High.

The CMR boys’ basketball team (0-1) is in Kalispell on Friday to battle the Braves, while the GFH boys (1-0) are at Helena Capital.