GREAT FALLS — With two district championships in the bag for both the boys and girls Roy-Winifred basketball programs, both teams head into the Northern C divisional with some serious momentum behind them.
The girls continued their undefeated season with a 43-36 win over district rival Belt who gave them as good a game as any team has all season.
“They’re a great team and they always bring it so we knew we were going to have to play good to win the game,” Head Coach Mauri Elness said. “I appreciate Belt actually bringing that competition because it prepares us for the next level.”
The girls won the state championship in 2020 sharing it with Belt while placing second in 2019.
For the boys, Belt had won the last two regular season meetings against the Outlaws but taking it one game and one day at a time helped with the preparation for round three in the championship. Roy-Winifred grinded out a 37-35 win that came down to big plays made by the Outlaws down the stretch.
“You know trying to get past that first game, then get past Winnett[Grass Range], had a couple of days to prepare for Belt,” boys head coach Dillon Udelhoven explained. “We knew it was going to be a dogfight and luckily things just went our way.”
With both teams 8C district champions, basketball is the talk of the town in the Roy-Winifred area helping boost the confidence of the Outlaws heading into divisional play at Four Seasons Arena.
“This is huge for our community and huge for our boys,” Elness said. “They’re peaking when they need too I think and they’ve seen more competition in our district than us so I think that for them moving on is a huge confidence booster.”
“It’s a lot of fun to be with this girls team, the girls coaches mesh well and we talk to each other about a bunch of different things,” Udelhoven added. “It’s just a great environment for us.”
The boys take on Big Sandy to start off the first divisional round while the girls take on Chinook. All the Northern C action takes place at the Four Seasons Arena through Monday.
