Rivalry Games Rekindle hoops Memories
Wow, what a day of basketball over in St. Francis on Saturday as Todd County met in girls and boys, C, JV and varsity action....That is a long day of work for everyone involved and a whole lotta basketball action covered by Channel 93 and KOYA Radio.
Boy that boys game was something else...That was anyone's game until about 1-minute left...
Couple thoughts:
Todd County - Mark Rogers, your player of the game...WOW...15 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals coming off the bench...Tyre Primeaux...when that guy gets going - 16 in the first half...David Espinoza had 12 rebounds...Aiden Bizardie 13 in the second half...
St. Francis - Chase Boltz is just fun to watch...He's a pest on defense...A threat to hit from deep and quicker than crap and one of the guys that always plays hard. Didn't see official stats but Jaylen Bear Robe had like 12 rebounds at half....Horse Looking is so dangerous when he gets going...This Caylen Clairmont is good on both sides of the ball and jut so athletic and poised for being so young...Can't wait to see this young man in track this spring.
Girls game - Well, Todd County as expected kinda rolled a young St. Francis team...24-65...Boy, if a few shots had fallen earlier for St. Francis it would have been closer....Just two varsity returners from a year ago, but, when young people get playing time they have the opportunity to get a lot better in the near future. Todd County kinda tuned up for the HEART of their schedule and a lot of girls saw action.
Caelyn Calandra-Prue and Autumn Phelps were named the MVP's of the tournament.
At any rate, a great effort from the Rosebud Media Dept for televising all those games....Janice and Brian Dillon did a great job on Channel 93 and Ben and Jenn lit it up on Koya...
It was interesting in putting together some blogs leading into the tournament and hearing other people tell their stories and talk about some of the great players. It was really fun to see some of those conversations on Facebook as people poured over the memories and relived some great moments.
Just a couple highlights from some of the blogs:
Buffy-Whipple-Grimshaw Buffy-Whipple-Grimshaw: There was quite a rivalry between St. Francis and Todd County girls basketball. We both wanted to beat each other so bad. That’s what I remember. They were tough with Nicole Emery and Toy Lunderman and a great bench.
Summer Lundrman - Several times I’ve had the pleasure of visiting with Lunderman about one of the best post players in the history of the SF vs. TC rivalry….6-foot-1, Letha Horse Looking. Always get chills when Lunderman talks about her big girl in the paint.“I’ve never seen a true post player that had the game Letha had. She stayed in the lane and she had such a commanding presence,” Lunderman said. “Her attitude, she brought 100 percent to every game. When we did sprints she was up with the guards. She put everything into her game. She was a forse down there.”
Rich Crow Eagle - During my time as a player in '97’, St Francis had a pretty good team, that I believe made it to a championship game vs Burke. If memory serves me right, they had Cornell Menard, Owen Marshall, Jerrell Eagleman, Damien Little Elk, and a host of juniors on that team. They were a pretty good team, coached by Red Prue. They had some big dudes that could score down low and Menard was a scoring machine.
There is such a rich history of basketball on the Rosebud. Decades and Decades of history and matchups...
Out of the corner of my eye I even saw a little memory from former White River player Richard Charging Hawk who missed the bus once on the way to the Jones County tournament...Thinking back in 84’ and 85’ of Jones County invitational, I thought the bus was leaving at a later time but it left earlier. I was at E & R bar(Erna and Ray Bartlett), And I was walking to the HS(which is now the MS) and noticed the bus had left me. Luckily the principal Mike Stroup stopped and said what happened and I told me the bus left me and said hold on I’ll be back. He came back with his little car with Vikki, Dr. Barnhart and Anne. We made it to Murdo in 15 minutes. Just in time to play. GOOD LUCK TIGERS TONIGHT!! #onceatigeralwaysatiger
At any rate, hope everyone continues to follow and support our local youth...A whole lot of other stories to tell and new stories to be formed....
