Sports

Lady Beavs grab #2 seed

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Dillon Lady Beaver coach John Hansen stated a primary team goal before the team ever stepped onto the court for an official game this season. He wanted his team to finish in the top two in the conference standings to avoid the Monday night divisional tournament playin game. The single elimination format, particularly on the road, puts any team in the situation in a precarious postseason situation, before the postseason officially begins.

Dillon’s Haverfield brothers excelling for UMW hoop team

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Tanner Haverfield swishes a 3-pointer from the left wing to give his University of Montana Western men’s basketball team a six-point, second-half advantage in a Feb. 7 game against Rocky Mountain College on UMW’s home court, Straugh Gymnasium, in Dillon.

Tanner’s bulls-eyed bomb gets launched from just about the same spot—just in front of his team’s bench—that his younger brother Michael buried a trey from just over a minute before off an assist from Tanner to give UMW the lead for good in the key victory.

Defending national champion UMW women slump into postseason

If nothing else, Montana Western women’s basketball team’s three losses last week over the final five days of the regular season clarified the Bulldogs’ status in relation to the Frontier Conference playoffs.

Heading into the final week with a 12-5 record, standing in second place in the league and just outside the Top 25 in the NAIA, the Bulldogs left the week at 12-8, lapsing to third place in the Frontier and well out of the national rankings. The defending national champion Bulldogs need to win the

Dawgs head to league playoffs at Havre Thursday, 7 p.m.

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The University of Montana Western men’s basketball team spent its final week of the season getting a long, hard look at the especially difficult tasks that lay ahead for it in the postseason.

Or it at least hopes lay ahead.

First, the fifth-seeded Bulldogs (6-12) will have to try to complete a merely difficult task— travelling to Havre and beating fourth seed Montana State University-Northern (6-11) in the first round of the Frontier Conference playoffs set to start at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 25.

UMW Dawgs downed swinging by Diggers in Frontier volleyball

The University of Montana Western volleyball team staged a big comeback, but fell just a little short Saturday in a five-set loss in Butte to Montana Tech.

Pushed to the brink after losing the match’s first two sets, 23-25 and 15-25, the Bulldogs rallied to take the third and fourth sets, 25-17 and 25-22, before falling 7-15 in the fifth and final.

Emmah Peterson led the Bulldogs’ frontline attack and defense with 11 kills along with 13 blocks (5 solo and 8 block assists)—a category in which she ranks second in the Frontier Conference.

#1 Beavers, Lady Beavs set to take on Western A

Yep, 2020 has rubbed off on 2021 already as the state moves into playoff basketball mode. A year ago at the state hoop tournaments, Montana High School Association officials announced to the different crowds gathered at venues across the state, that the tournament had been suspended. The finals, consolation finals and semifinals were not played, leaving a terrible taste in the mouths of fans anticipating championship celebrations.

#1 Dillon dominates Lewistown on Senior Night

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It is a special group of players that understands you can always get better and that sitting back and resting on previous accomplishments can only result in defeat.

The Dillon Beavers reveling in a work ethic that might be rivaled by another team, but never surpassed, handed conference foe Corvallis a crushing 68-31 defeat last Tuesday, and then in a rare regular season meeting with an Eastern A foe, rejected Lewistown, 75-51, to end the regular season undefeated on Senior Night at B.W. Lodge Gymnasium.

UMW football opts out of Frontier Conference spring season

The University of Montana Western football team will opt out of the spring Frontier Conference schedule, Montana Western administration informed the conference on Tuesday.

Undefeated #1 Beavers clinch top tourney seed

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With a week still left in the regular season, the Dillon Beavers improved to 13-0 with a pair of conference wins and better yet, clinched the top seed for the Southwestern A at the Western A Divisional Tournament at Butte, Feb. 25-27.

In a pair of start to finish battles, Dillon edged Frenchtown, 41-34 at Dillon last Thursday, and then held off Hamilton, 43-41, Saturday on the road.

In both games, Dillon did not light up the scoreboard or impress with high shooting percentages, but won the games with their trademark this season –relentless hard work and hustle.

Lady Beavers hoop team scrambling for a #2 seed

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The Dillon Lady Beavers are scrambling for the second seed out of the six-team Southwestern A Conference and their play on Saturday showed that they are very much in contention for the coveted berth that would allow the team with the ranking to sit out a win or go home play-in game on Monday, Feb. 22.

Dillon led throughout the second half against Hamilton and posted a 39- 29 win, avenging an earlier 33-41 loss at Hamilton.