Fourth-And-Four

Playing in the Northern B Divisional Tournament is a goal for any team coming in to the season and both Glasgow teams accomplished that with their play in districts. That doesn’t mean missed opportunities didn’t plague both Scottie basketball coaches afterwards, though.

For the Scottie girls, that opportunity was a 16-point lead against Wolf Point in a semi-final that, with a win, would pit the girls against Plentywood, who upset tournament-favorite Malta in their own semi-final.

Instead, the Lady Wolves scored 23 in the fourth to make the almost-miraculous comeback and steal the 49-47 win.

“I’d love to have that one back,” said Scottie girls’ head coach Chuck Barstad. “We had an opportunity there to do some good things.”

If the Scottie girls had held on to the win over Wolf Point, they would have had a favorable matchup in the championship. The Scottie girls had defeated Plentywood both times the two teams met this season, including once by 20 in Plentywood.

Even though Plentywood may have “played their three best ball games all year long” at districts, according to Barstad, the Scottie girls would have probably been the favorites to win.

At the very least, the Scottie girls would have been the second seed coming out of 2B and avoided two-time state champion and winners of 72 straight Fairfield out of the 1B at divisionals.

However, the Scottie girls still survived by beating Poplar on Saturday in a play-in game. They made it out of districts and have the chance to play for a spot at state.

It wasn’t one big missed opportunity for the boys, it was several single-play opportunities that they let slip by against Malta that could have given them the upset of the Mustangs.

Head Coach Norm Braaten noted a few times against Malta that they had chances to make a run; but Malta was able to keep them at arm’s distance.

“Malta proved that Malta’s still the best team,” said Braaten. “It was a good ball game for us, though. I think the kids grew up. The kids learned they could play with anybody.”

The Scottie boys took care of Harlem in the first round in a quasi-revenge game after Harlem upset the Scotties during a regular-season game. After losing to Malta, the Scotties also dispatched Poplar in the boys’ play-in game.

“We got what we wanted I guess from the beginning of the season,” said Braaten. “We made it to divisionals.”

The boys have the week off with the Northern B Boys’ Divisional Tournament starting on Feb. 28 in Cut Bank, where the Scotties have a date with Rocky Boy. Next week’s Courier will have full coverage of that divisional.