Bache, Larson lead Big Sky boys

In a pair of All-Star games were fans count 3-pointers and dunks more than they do the final score, the Treasure State and Big Sky teams split the Southwest Montana High School All-Star Basketball Classic Tuesday night at the Montana Tech HPER Complex.

After the Treasure State pulled away for an 84-52 win in the girls’ game, the Big Sky boys won 115-75 in the nightcap.

The Big Sky teams included players from Butte High and Butte Central, while the Treasure State teams included players from Dillon and Anaconda.

Butte High sophomore Braylon Larson and Bulldog senior Dylan “Bobby” Bache were stars among All-Stars, leading the way to the Big Sky victory. Bache tossed in 19 points, while Larson followed with 18.

Larson’s total included at least four dunks that electrified the crowd.

All 13 Big Sky All-Stars scored points in the win. That includes 12 points from Butte High senior Torre Temple, and 10 apiece from Boulder’s Tyler Fryderlund and Hunter Stevens. Butte High senior Tocher Lee, Butte Central junior Ryan Peoples and BC sophomore GG Fantini.

Central senior Owen McPartland added seven points, while Big Sky got six from Sheridan’s Trey Schrank, four apiece from Sheridan’s Kyle Theis and BC sophomore Joshua Sutton and one from Whitehall’s Trent Larson.

Ennis star Kace Wagner’s 17 points paced Treasure State, which also saw all 13 players dent the scorebook. Dillon’s Braxton Turney scored 12 points, while Beaver teammate Gabe Lemelin scored 10. Anaconda’s Travis Dye scored nine.

Philipsburg’s Erik Pitcher, Twin Bridges’ Flint Janzen and Ennis’ Ryker Swanson scored four points. Twin Bridges’ Hunter Turk, West Yellowstone’s Damian Ramales, Anaconda’s Shane Shalk and Deer Lodge’s Gideon Rubink scored three, Deer Lodge’s Shawn Lombardi tossed in two, and West Yellowstone’s Noah Flores netted one.

McPartland won the boys’ 3-point contest at halftime of the girls’ game. He and Sutton each hit 15 points to tope Tempel in the final round. McPartland then hit all three shots in a tiebreaker for the win.

Marissa Snyder of Ennis poured in 24 points to lead the Treasure State stars, who broke the game open with a 32-7 run in the fourth quarter. She was one of three Treasure State All-Stars to score in double figures.

Anaconda’s Meela Mitchel scored all of her 18 points in the second half. That includes 12 points in the big fourth quarter. Dillon’s Kylie Konen finished with 14 points.

Kenleigh Graham of Dillon scored nine points, while Mikendra Ledgerwood scored eight points.

Treasure state also got four points apiece from Dillon’s Cassie Keller and Sage Tash and two from Ennis’ Mikayla Ledgerwood.

Also competing for the Treasure State All-Stars were Ennis’ Tanaya Hauser Philipsburg’s Montannah Piar, Deer Lodge’s Allison Hathaway and Whitehall’s Julia Hoagland.

West Yellowstone’s Ali Spence and Butte High sophomore Cadence Graham each scored in double figures to lead Big Sky. Spence scored 19 points, while Graham tossed in 12. Both sank three 3-pointers.

Cameron Toney of Boulder scored eight points, while Central junior Arika Stajcar hit a long 3-pointer and scored five points. Big Sky also got three points apiece from Butte High seniors Dylann Bartoletti and Brityn Stewart, and two from Boulder’s Rylan Eveland.

Also competing for Big Sky were Natalie Salinas of West Yellowstone, BC freshman Zayonna Otherbull, BC sophomore Rylee Forbes, and Butte High junior Franki Salusso.

Kenleigh Graham hit 13 3-pointers in the final round to win the 3-point contest at the halftime of the boys’ game. Cadence Graham and Mitchell each sank 11 in the finals.

GIRLS
Treasure State 84, Big Sky 52
TREASURE STATE — Marissa Snider 9 2-2 24, Tanaya Houser 0 0-0 0, Montannah Piar 0 0-0 0, Mikendra Ledgerwood 4 0-0 8, Cassie Keller 2 0-0 4, Allison Hathaway 0 0-0 0, Julia Hoagland 0 0-0 0, Mikayla Ledgerwood 1 0-0 2, Kylie Konen 6 1-2 14, Kenleigh Graham 4 0-0 9, Meela Mitchell 7 1-2 18, Sage Tash 2 0-0 4. Totals 35 5-7 83.
BIG SKY — Natalie Salinas 0 0-0 0, Dylann Bartoletti 1 0-0 3, adence Graham 3 1-1 12, Cameron Toney 3 0-0 8, Zayonna Otherbull 0 0-0 0, Rylan Eveland 1 0-0 2, Rylee Forbes 0 0-0 0, Brityn Stewart 1 0-0 3, Franki Salusso 0 0-0 0, Ari Spence 8 0-0 19, Arika Stajcar 2 0-0 5. Totals 20 1-1 52.
Treasure State           17        19        15        32 — 83
Big Sky                       15        14        16        7 — 52
3-point goals — Treasre State 8 (Snider 4, Mitchell 3, Graham), Big Sky 11 (Graham 3, Spence 3, Toney 2, Stewart, Bartoletti, Stajcar).

BOYS
Big Sky 115, Treasure State 75
TREASURE STATE — Hunter Turk 1 0-0 3, Damian Ramales 1 0-0 3, Erik Pitcher 2 0-0 4, Shawn Lombardi 1 0-1 2, Flint Janzen 2 0-2 4, Shane Shalk 1 0-0 3, Ryker Swanson 2 0-0 4, Travis Dye 2 2-2 9, Braxton Turney 4 0-2 12, Kace Wagner 5 3-3 17, Gideon Rubnik 1 0-0 3, Noah Flores 0 1-2 1, Gabe Lemelin 4 0-0 10. Totals 28 6-12 75.
BIG SKY — Kyler Theis 2 0-0 4, Ryan Peoples 3 0-0 8, Tocher Lee 3 0-0 8, Trent Larson 0 1-2 1, Trey Schrank 3 0-0 6, Tyler Fryderlund 5 0-0 10, Dylan “Bobby” Bache 8 1-1 19, Joshua Sutton 2 0-0 4, Hunter Stevens 4 0-0 10, Torre Tempel 4 0-0 12, GG Fantini 3 2-2 8, Owen McPartland 3 0-0 7, Braylon Larson 9 0-0 18. Totals 51 4-5 115.
Treasure State           15        16        23        21 — 75
Big Sky                       31        31        25        28 — 113
3-point goals — Treasure State 13 (Wagner 4, Lemelin 2, Turney 2, Ruink, Dye, Schalk, Ramales, Turk), Big Sky 9 (Peoples 2, Lee 2, Tempel 2, Stevens 2, McPartland).

Stewart left it all on the floor

As a sophomore, Brityn Stewart really opened some eyes in a loser-out game at the Western AA Divisional tournament in Kalispell.

Stewart, who emerged as a force for the Bulldogs during her first full season as a varsity player, scored 36 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in a 67-59 victory over Helena Capital.

That performance on March 3, 2023 accounted for the most points scored by a Butte High girl in a post-season game. It ranked only behind Lexie Nelson’s 39 points in a 2010 regular-season game against Billings Skyview.

She passed Butte Sports Hall of Famer Deanna Dugdale for No. 2 on the all-time Bulldog list.

Dugdale had her big game, scoring 35 against Columbia Falls in 1982.

Cadence Graham, by the way, tied Dugdale with 35 points in Saturday morning’s loser-out win over Billings Skyview at the Class AA State tournament in Bozeman.

Graham broke Butte High’s school record by hitting nine 3-pointers in that win. She did not play in the fourth quarter.

In her big game in 2023, Stewart made 11 of 15 shots from the field, including a 3-for-5 effort from 3-point land. She sank 11 of 12 free throws.

While her shooting percentage and point total form that day at the Flathead High School Gym is hard to top, Stewart’s performance in Saturday’s 62-58 loss to Missoula Big Sky in the third-place game was still one for the ages.

After the Bulldogs blew out Bozeman and Skyview to get to the third-place game, Butte High took on the Eagles for the third-place trophy. The game was played right before the boys’ championship game.

Stewart scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. She was also credited two steals while leaving everything on the floor to lead Butte High’s defensive effort.

Of those 23 points, Stewart scored 17 in the second half as Butte High nearly pulled off a miracle comeback.

Stewart averaged more than 13 points per game in all three seasons she played varsity for the Bulldogs. She was also the vocal leader of the team, usually delivering pregame talks to her teammates.

Stewart was one of four seniors the Bulldogs will lose from the team that posted a 16-8 record. The Bulldogs will also have to replace Dylann Bartoletti, Addie Hiatt and Sidney Whitaker. That will be no easy task for Butte High coach Bryan Arntson, but the Bulldogs appear to have a lot of young talent coming back.

Graham dials in from deep

Unfortunately, an official stat sheet was never made available online for Butte High’s 76-52 win over Billings Skyview Saturday morning. That game was played at the Gallatin gym.

In that game, Graham sank nine 3-pointers in a legendary 35-point performance that did not include a single point in the fourth quarter.

She broke the girls’ school record of seven shared by Hattie Thatcher (2013), Mariah Richardson (2014) and McCaul Ori (2015). Graham was already one of three Bulldogs to sink six 3-poiners in a game, joining Sonja Rogers (2003) and Brianne McClafferty (2008).

Rodgers, who transferred to Lewistown following her sophomore season of 2002-03, broke a record of five shared by Dani Svejkowsky (1991 and 1992) and Gayle Clark (1993). Rodgers was 6 for 6 from 3-point range that night against Missoula Sentinel at the Richardson Gym.

The list of Bulldogs with five 3-pointers grew after Rodgers erased that as the record. That includes Shelby Rosa (2006), Nelson (2010), Natalee Faupel (2013), Ori (twice in 2015), Ally Cleverly (2019) Brittney Tierney (2019) and Makenna Carpenter (twice in 2020).

While only one Butte team advanced to a state tournament, the 2024-25 season will long be remembered as one that sent journalists scrambling for the record books.

That is in large part to Graham, Butte High boys Torre Tempel, Tocher Lee and Hudson Luedtke and Butte Central boys Owen McPartland and Joshua Sutton.

No time to rest

Our athletes do not get much — if any — time to rest before jumping into the spring season.

Less than a week after the basketball season ended, Butte High will be in action in softball and baseball this week. Butte Central’s track team will also compete.

Of course, the spring schedule is always at the mercy of the weather, and most Butte High and Butte Central teams have not been able to practice outside yet.

The Bulldogs are scheduled to open the softball season Friday in Missoula. They will take on Billings West at 11 a.m. and Billings Senior at 1 p.m. Both games are non-conference.

Butte High is scheduled to play its first home games Tuesday when Gallatin comes to town for a doubleheader.

Butte High’s baseball team is set to take on Missoula Big Sky at 2 p.m. Friday in Missoula. The Bulldogs’ first home game is set for April 3 against Lone Peak.

Butte High’s tennis teams open March 28 in Missoula, while the Bulldog track team isn’t in action until it travels to Missoula on April 1.

Central’s track teams will compete in the Gene Hughes Invitational Saturday in Corvallis. BC will play its first softball games March 29 in Livingston. Central is set to open its home softball slate April 3 against Dillon.

In baseball, Central opens March 27 at home against East Helena. Central’s tennis teams begin next Tuesday in Livingston along with Dillon and Hardin.

Make sure to check the Butte High and Butte Central schedules often, though. They will likely change with the weather conditions.

Click here for the Butte High schedules and click here for the BC schedules.