Take Care Of The Ball

The Scotties' itinerary for today goes like this.

Leave Glasgow at 12:45 p.m.

Practice and have lunch in Havre.

Arrive in Shelby tonight.

When you're on the road to the Northern B Divisional Boys Basketball Tournament – 261 miles of road – you make time to practice. It will be at Havre Middle School.

"It will be review, up-and-down stuff for against Rocky Boy," G-Town coach Norm Braaten told The Courier. "Get them loose after sitting on the bus. They're ready to go."

It's go time.

The Scotties, 19-1 and ranked No. 2 in Class B statewide, open Divisional at 6:30 p.m. Thursday against 12-10 Rocky Boy. Should they win, the winner of the game between 8-10 Harlem and 6-13 Fairfield awaits at 8 p.m. Friday in the semifinals.

In the other bracket, No. 1 ranked and 20-0 Choteau faces 3-14 Plentywood at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in a David vs. Goliath matchup. The winner will meet the winner of the game between 13-8 Shelby and 11-9 Malta in the semis. That game begins 6:30 p.m. Friday.

The bracket winners clash at 8 p.m. Saturday for the division crown. Both advance to State the following week at Great Falls.

For the veteran Scotties, all of this is pretty familiar. They beat Rocky Boy and Choteau at Divisional last year.

"We know who Rocky Boy and Fairfield and Choteau are," Braaten said. "They're all veteran teams. They're a year older like we are. Fairfield is solid. Choteau is Choteau. They've got a lot of good kids, but my kids don't fear anybody."

If the western teams have an advantage, he said it could be that they've faced better competition week in and week out during this 2B down year.

Rocky Boy runs and guns and can get across midcourt in a flash.

"We need to take care of the ball and score on them," Braaten said.

Glasgow also must keep the ball out of the middle of the floor and get it up top, he said. He hinted that the team has "some new things in place" for the tournament.

Braaten said his team's mindset, with 58 practices this season and years of veteran experience, is fine.

"The six seniors (Chase Fossum, Keil Krumwiede, Gage Legare, Jake Kolstad, Jake Page and Jason Thibault) have been there before," he said. "We know that we need to take care of ourselves and we'l be fine. We won't be wild-eyed. We won Divisional last year. We won a game at State. We were methodical at the District tournament this year and won it."

Braaten said his team's health is good, that Fossum and Krumwiede are getting over lingering colds but it's nothing major.