Bulldogs look to overrun the Spartans
The Bulldogs of Butte High School are back on the hardcourt tonight to battle the Spartans of Missoula Sentinel, their only game on the schedule this week.
The Butte High boys (2-2 Conf., 3-4 overall) are back at Ross Richardson to take on the Spartans in a 7 pm varsity matchup. Sentinel (1-3 Conf., 2-6 overall) has lost 3 straight in conference to Hellgate, Big Sky and Glacier. Their lone conference win coming over Flathead, 40-38.
Through 8 games Sentinel doesn’t have a scorer averaging in double digits. That said they do have a good group of guys that are capable of putting it down. Riley Allen and Trevor Rausch both have 17-point games. Holter Schweyer has led them in scoring a pair of games, and Riley Allen also has led them in scoring twice this year.
Senior Trevor Rausch is their scoring leader to this point, averaging 8.4 a game. Riley Allen clocks in at 7.5, Holter Schweyen, and Patrick Sale both average 7 a contest.
The Dogs are coming off a heartbreaking 88-87 overtime loss at Missoula Big Sky last week. Butte High has 10 conference games remaining, 4 of those are at home, counting tonight. So each home game is critically important.
Coming off his 24-point performance against Big Sky, freshman Hudson Luedtke paces the Bulldogs with 16 points a game. Seniors Jace Stenson and Cameron Gurnsey also had big games against Big Sky, knocking down 17 points each, they both enter the Sentinel game averaging 10 points a game.
Varsity Tipoff scheduled for 7 pm tonight at Ross Richardson.
With the boys at home, that means the girls are on the road again… There is a silver lining! I mentioned earlier the boys have 4 of their last 10 conference games at home, that means the girls only have 4 more road trips before tournament time, counting tonight.
The Butte High girls (0-4 conf.- 1-7 overall) have battled hard under a tough schedule (2 home games). Like the boys, the girls also fell to Missoula Big Sky in overtime 50-48 last Friday. Brityn Stewart had a monster for Butte High, scoring a career-high 16 points, Emmarie Richards netted 11 in the loss. Emmarie has been the rock of consistency for Butte High this year, she is averaging 10 points a game. Laura Rosenleaf continues to battle in the block, getting 8 points, and 10 rebounds a game. And Brityn Stewart ups her numbers to 7 points, and 5 rebounds a game.
The Sentinel girls (3-1 conf.- 6-2 overall) enter the matchup with book-end losses. In the first game of the year they fell to defending state champ, Billings Skyview 59-52. They then ran off 6 straight wins. Last Friday night they took their second loss on the year, a rivalry game to boot, 51-39 to Missoula Hellgate.
Sentinel has 3 ladies averaging in double digits, CC Size at 15 points a game, Emily McElmurry with 13, and Olivia Huntsinger comes in at 10. The Spartans are an extremely athletic team, that spreads the ball around and gets good looks. The Sentinel ladies average 61 points a game, and defensively only give up 50.
The girls' varsity matchup is scheduled for a 7:15 tip-off in Missoula.