Montana sweeps all-star basketball series with Wyoming for 6th consecutive year

LOCKWOOD — For the sixth consecutive year, the Montana boys and girls swept the all-star basketball series with Wyoming after picking up wins on Saturday night at Lockwood High School.

Montana 82, Wyoming 62 (girls)

The Montana girls and head coach Wes Keller extended their winning streak to 13 consecutive games over Wyoming with an 82-62 victory.

“I thought, especially as we went into halftime, that they played harder than us,” Keller said. “Give them credit. I thought their ball pressure bothered us and we had some turnovers that we shouldn’t have had just being loose and careless with the basketball. … It’s always hard. You win big one night and you can tell them until you’re blue in the face, ‘Tonight’s a different night. It’s going to be a different game. They got their butts kicked and they’re coming for you.’ I’m proud of the kids for withstanding several runs and then we made plays down the stretch.”

Montana opened up a 13-point lead at halftime, but Wyoming trimmed it to five, 58-53, late in the third quarter. Montana answered with a 17-5 run to essentially put the game out of reach.

“We made a few different substitutions and had a few different combinations. We had some more ball handlers to help with the pressure, and I think that paid off,” Keller said.

Alyse Aby led Montana with 13 points while Malea Egan and Alex Bullock added 12.

The Montana girls now hold a 39-13 all-time advantage.

Montana 101, Wyoming 66 (boys)

The Montana guys continue to own the all-star basketball series with Wyoming.

Montana picked up its 22nd consecutive victory in the series on Saturday night at Lockwood High School with a 101-66 win.

“We didn’t come out with that fire. We played five good minutes in the first half and gave us a cushion,” said Steve Keller. “We just carried that to the second half. We’ve got a bunch of really good players who can all score and attack the rim. We were shooting a lot of 3s early, and we wanted them to attack the rim. We’re hard to guard.”

Wyoming played noticeably harder than Friday night, and in turn had a much more competitive game. Montana led by just one after the first quarter but by 14 at the half and 24 after three.

Several players once again contributed to the victory. Seth Amunrud led Montana with 21 points, while Eli Hunter and Royce Robinson each added 18.

“It makes it so much easier. When you have 10 of the best players from across the state sharing the ball and you get a great shot every time down the court, you’re going to get really good results,” Amunrud said.

“We all have the utmost confidence in each other to hit open shots, so it helps the defense not be able to key in on any one of us,” said Hunter.

Montana’s defensive effort over the weekend was the elite, holding Wyoming to just 110 total points.

“Sometimes in all-star games teams don’t want to play defense. But we don’t want to be the team to break the streak, so we wanted to play defense to make sure that didn’t happen,” Amunrud said.

“They’re athletic and they have good feet. They helped each other,” Keller said. “I take no credit for their defense because we never worked on it one bit. That’s all them.”

The Montana guys hold a 67-27 all-time advantage.