By Jack Reaney ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Lone Peak High School basketball played its first-ever Montana Class B playoff game Wednesday night, entering the district 5B tournament as the five-seed and upsetting the No. 4 Whitehall-Willow Creek Trojans, 41-38.
Junior Isaac Bedway accounted for 23 of Lone Peak’s 41 points, including four free throws in the fourth quarter—two of which came with .4 seconds on the clock, giving the Big Horns a 41-38 lead.
“He tried to miss the second, to make the clock run out, but even that one went in,” head coach Al Malinowski wrote in an email to EBS.
Sophomore Ebe Grabow scored six points, sophomore Oliver McGuire scored five and freshman Ryan Malinowski scored three points. Senior Juliusz Shipman and freshman Miles Romney eached scored two points in the Big Horns’ first-round victory.
“The team showed a lot of resilience,” Malinowski wrote. “Neither team could make shots early. Late in the game, Whitehall would score and we would answer. I don’t think we led until the last minute, when Isaac stole a pass and made a breakaway layup to put us up [by] one.”
The Big Horns advance in the double-elimintation tournament to play the Manhattan High School Tigers—ranked No. 2 in all of Montana Class B—on Friday at 5 p.m. at Manhattan Christian High School.
The girls varsity team plays their first-round game today, Feb. 15, against Manhattan High School.
