Rough Trip Snowballs Into Defeat Montana’s 1996 Class C Titlists Battle Blizzard Then Lose By One

When snow sidelined the undefeated Scobey Spartans on a highway Thursday and threatened to keep them from the state basketball tournament, they took to the air and flew nearly the width of Montana arriving in time to play. Then they lost.

By just one point, in overtime, the Spartans saw their dreams of a second straight state Class C title vanish with their first loss in 24 games.

After battling a blizzard, they reached Billings a day later than planned and headed directly to the court, undaunted by the delays and difficulties that idled some 60 carloads of boosters and sent the team scrambling onto two small planes.

“I had big hopes for this tournament,” said Joel Nieskens, a guard with college basketball aspirations.

The 52-51 loss to Seeley-Swan in the first round of the tournament was the biggest disappointment of his athletic career, said Nieskens, who scored 19 points.

He and other Scobey players refused to blame the chaotic trip for their loss, but acknowledged they weren’t in top form and agreed fatigue probably played a role.

“We were all pretty tired, but it wasn’t the trip’s fault,” said Curt Ware, another senior. “We just played flat offense.”

In Scobey, a northeastern Montana farming community tucked near the Canadian border, supporters were more charitable.

“I’m sure they were pretty worn out and pretty stressed,” Sherry Fugere said during a break from her job at The Silver Slipper bar and restaurant. “I feel bad for them.”

The Spartans were supposed to leave Scobey on Wednesday. But after being held back by the blizzard, they set out at 5 a.m. Thursday on the 340-mile trip to Billings, traveling behind southbound snowplows.

It took about 4 hours to travel the 48 miles to Wolf Point, so two boosters arranged for a pair of private planes to take coach Dave Selvig and nine of his top players to Billings.

Today, Scobey (23-1) plays Bridger in a loser-out game.

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