Lions' Dream Season Over

The best team in District 3C all season, Lustre Christian was the last hope for the conference to send a team to the State basketball playoffs.

But after a long season, the Lions fell a little short losing in a championship matchup with Culbertson in the Eastern C Divisional championship game and falling behind early to Circle in the challenge game on Monday.

The Lions swept through their first two games of the tournament by closely edging Fairview 61-57 and Saco/Whitewater 43-39, earning themselves a place in the divisional championship game against Culbertson.

The championship game started off in Lustre's favor, with the Lions hanging close with the hot-shooting Cowboys. The Lions trailed 9-8 with a minute remaining in the first quarter when Culbertson really found its stroke.

The Cowboys hit a 3-pointer on the next possession then proceeded to expand their lead in the low scoring second quarter to take a 19-11 halftime lead.

The problem only worsened as Culbertson's Fred Lester hit two 3-pointers to open the second half, giving them a 25-13 lead. The Cowboys continued the hot streak, answering every Lion attempt at a comeback in the quarter. By the end of the third, Culbertson led 39-21.

Lustre's Morgan Young and Tom Leland tried admirably to get the Lions back into the game, but again were answered after every bucket they hit. Culbertson went on to win 52-34.

Leland led the Lions in scoring, netting 10 points in the game, with Morgan Young close behind with nine points. Jordan Young had seven points, Cody Masterson had six points and Jin Woo Lee had two points.

The loss set the Lions up for a challenge game against Circle on Monday in Wolf Point. The Wildcats earned the challenge by beating Scobey 45-34 in the consolation game on Saturday. Circle narrowly lost to Culbertson earlier in the tournament, 44-42.

For Lustre, whose five starters all played 30 minutes on Saturday, the start was dismal.

Though both teams struggled to score in the first few minutes of the game, once Circle started to score, the did it in bunches. Three minutes into the game, the Wildcats scored the first basket of the contest, netting a 3-pointer from the left corner, then followed that on the next possession with another three.

The Lions got close when Masterson banked in a shot from the post to cut the Circle lead to 10-6 with two minutes to go in the first, but the Wildcats' Brock Loudon made sure that would be as close as the Lions would get for some time.
Loudon hit a 10-footer with just a little more than a minute to play in the first, then followed that on the next two possessions with 3-pointers from the top of the key, the last as time expired in the opening quarter to give Circle a 18-6 lead.

The Wildcats added to that lead when the second quarter began, hitting a three on the very first possession of the quarter, then narrowly missing another that went nearly all the way down before deciding to bounce out of the basket. A putback by Masterson and a 3-pointer by Morgan Young cut the lead back to 10 points, but Circle closed the half on a 7-2 run, leading 28-13 going into the break.

In the third things fell apart for Lustre. Morgan Young scored on the opening basket of the half, but the Lions only mustered one more point in the quarter falling behind 39-16 and getting in serious foul trouble along the way.

As the fourth quarter started, Masterson scored in the post and Morgan Young hit a 3-pointer to wake up the Lustre crowd. The Lions were just starting to wrangle back the momentum when Masterson fouled out with 6:50 to play in regulation, taking the Lions' tallest player off the court.

That's not to say the Lions went down without a fight.

Lustre turned to small ball – pressing the Wildcats and running the ball up the court to look for the first open shot.

The tactic worked. Morgan Young and Leland shot the Lions to a 12-0 run in just 1:47, pulling Lustre to within eight points, as they only trailed 40-32.

But the next possession, Circle was into the double bonus and from that point on slowly moved the lead from close to comfortable.

Lustre tried to get back within shooting distance, continuing to hit their shots, but the Lions' charge was just a little too late. With a little more than a minute remaining, the bench was sent into the game and the Lions lost 58-44.

“These kids have worked heard, they've done things that no team at Lustre has ever done,” said Lustre head coach Clay Young.  “I'm proud of them.”

Morgan Young led the team in scoring with 21 points, while Masterson racked up 10 points before leaving in the fourth. Leland finished with six points, Jordan Young had five points and David Orifov scored two points late.

“They're gutsy kids and they always come back,” Young said. “But when you play Circle you can't get behind them like that. They're going to pick you apart. They're a well coached team and they're going to do a good job at State.”

The other teams from the 3C didn't fare quite as well in the tournament.

Nashua, who played eventual-champion Culbertson in the first game of the tournament, could have prevented a lot of the mayhem from happening except the Porcupines found themselves swept up in the craziness that happened over the weekend.

The Porcupines were sitting pretty, leading the Cowboys by 10 points with just more than a minute remaining in the game when the world fell apart in front of their eyes.

A mix of bad luck, bad timing and a Culbertson team allergic to missing shots sent the Porcupines into a tailspin in the final minute of the game, as they eventually lost 57-53, letting loose the team that would eventually beat both Circle and Lustre.

In the next game, against Scobey on Friday, Nashua couldn't shake their spell of bad luck and sharp shooting opposition. Anthony Bengochea, who sat for a few weeks earlier in the season with a bad hamstring, re-injured his leg on a fast break that put him out for the game. Key backup Jared Busch, who plays with a wrap on his knee, was rolled on by a teammate and re-injured his knee. By the end of the game at least three more players were limping and the Spartans had built an insurmountable lead by hitting deep shots and converting at the free-throw line, scoring 15 points from the charity stripe.

Scobey themselves didn't see much more success than that, getting revenge on Saco/Whitewater in the losers bracket, but losing twice to Circle.

Saco/Whitewater's only victory came in the first round against Froid/Medicine Lake.