In what seemed to be a season that just started, the Class AA regular season has already come and gone, with everyone’s sights set on divisional play the Bulldogs locked in the #5 seed finishing at 9-9 overall and 8-6 in conference play.
The Bulldogs will face Helena Capital for a 3rd time this season (11-7 8-6) Thursday @ 2pm, as both teams split the season series at 1 game apiece. Capital hung on to a 1-point advantage back in January and Butte High just won 69-58 on senior night last week.
Jace Stenson goes up for two Saturday against Helena. (Photo Kristina Mengon for Butte Sports file Photo.)
Butte High will look to their three headed monster as Hudson Luedtke looks to continue his stellar play, he leads the team in scoring with just over 15 a game, while averaging 5 boards a contest too, Jace Stenson is the next leading scorer with 13 a game and most recently just dropped a 25 piece on Capital, Cameron Gurnsey, the high flying University of Montana prospect is averaging 10 a game and looks to get things going early and often as he can get you buckets in more ways than one, maybe even a dunk to get the crowd going.
Hudson Luedtke shoots over two defenders Friday night (phot by John Robbins Butte Sports)
Tocher Lee, and Casy Merrifield look to keep long distance buckets in their arsenal as both can bury you in a hurry. I talked with coach Matt, and he said, “we know they are going to bring swarming defenses for all 4 quarters, but if we play our game, I believe we are the better team.”
Buttes main focus will be shutting down Nick and Joey Michelotti as they combined for 23 the first meeting and 22 the second.
The Bruins like mentioned earlier, play stifling defense and are holding their opponents to 45 a game although that wasn’t the case last week, Butte is averaging 63 a contest and look to survive and advance Thursday at 2pm in Flathead Valley to advance to the State tournament hosted in their hometown.
The winner of the game will advance to the semifinal against the Hellgate vs Flathead winner at 6:30 and the loser will play Friday afternoon at 12:30. The top 4 will advance to the big dance in Butte America March 9-11th.
You can follow Butte Sports fort updates and stories to follow the games as stats become available, if you are attending these games and would like to send photos you can do so by sending them to john@buttesports.com
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