The District 9C regular season has concluded and the teams have secured their tournament seeds. The brackets are set for the 2023 District 9C Boys basketball tournament this week. The boys tournament runs Thursday through Saturday with the top three seeds advancing to the Northern C Divisional in Great Falls February 22-25.

The Turner Tornadoes earned the highest seeding among the three Blaine County Schools. The Tornadoes enter the tournament as the No. 5 seed compiling a conference record of 5-9 and an over all mark of 8-10.

The Chinook Sugarbeeters will be the No.7 seed after finishing 4-10 in conference play and 5-13 overall. The Hays/Lodge Pole Thunderbirds enter as the No. 8 seed having compiled a 1-13 conference mark and an overall record of 2-16.

The top seed in this years tournament will be the Box Elder Bears (12-2, 15-3). The Big Sandy Pioneers will be the No. 2 seed (11-3, 15-3). The Chester/Joplin-Inverness Hawks enter as the No. 3 seed (10-4, 14-4). Fort Benton will be the No. 4 seed (9-5, 13-5). North Star Rounds out the field as the No. 6 seed (4-10,7-11). Chinook and North Star finish tied in the standings but the tie break went to the Knights based an head to head meetings.

Game one of the boys tournament will get started Thursday morning at 11:00 am with a contest between the Hays/Lodge Pole Thunderbirds and the Box Elder Bears. The Bears easily won both meetings this season, winning in Hays 81-31 on January 14 and this past Saturday in Box Elder 109-71. Turner will begin the tournament Thursday afternoon at 12:30 pm in the second game of the boys tournament. They will face the Fort Benton Longhorns in round one. Turner won the first meeting between the two teams at home December 16 by a score of 52-47. The Longhorns won the second contest in Fort Benton January 20 51-35.

The winner of these two first round games will meet in the District 9C semifinal Friday afternoon at 4:00 pm, while the losers will play at 8:00 am Friday morning in a loser out contest.

Game three will feature the Chester/Joplin-Inverness Hawks taking on the North Star Knights Thursday afternoon with tip off set for 4:00 pm.

Game four will see the Chinook Sugarbeeters play the Big Sandy Pioneers at 5:30 pm Thursday evening. The Pioneers topped the 'Beeters 67-52 in Big Sandy on December 16 and by a score of 72-42 in Chinook, January 19. The winners of game three and game four will meet Friday night in the second boys semifinal scheduled to get underway at 5:30 pm. Losers will play Friday morning at 9:30 am in loser out action.

Tournament time is an exciting time for every team as they enter the tournament. While some teams may be deemed heavy favorite to win it all and others may be thought of as non-contenders, the truth is anything can happen. Last year the Harlem Lady Cats entered the District 2B as the No. 5 seed and went on to finish second in the tournament. They then won the Northern B Divisional to advance to the Class B State tournament where they won their first round game. The Lady Cats took down power house teams from Malta and Fairfield along the way proving that anything can truly happen.

Turner junior Trent Billmayer has been a staple for the Tornadoes on both sides of the ball. Billmayer is a shut sown defender on the perimeter and can score in transition, from beyond the arc and in the paint.

The top three teams at the District 9C Tournament will advance to the Northern C Divisional in Great Falls, February 22-25 being played at the Four Seasons Arena.