Jayde LeFevre hit a pair of free throws with 1 second left on the clock and Laurel beat Billings Central 33-31 in the championship game of the Class A State girls’ basketball tournament Saturday night.

The Locomotives called a time out after a Billings Central player was called for traveling with 6.3 seconds. LeFevre drove to the middle and drew a foul setting up the game-winning tosses.

LeFevre and Dalayna Christenson each scored 11 points in the victory. Christenson also grabbed 12 rebounds.

Allie Lucas tossed in 15 points to pace the Rams, whose 2012 State title defense fell one second short.

Complete stats

Butte Central won’t be hoisting any trophies at the Class A State girls’ basketball team.

The Maroons ran out of gas but not out of fight tonight, falling 51-41 to Browning in the consolation game at the Butte Civic Center.

Freshman Tiara Gilham scored 14 points and pulled down 18 rebounds to lead the Indians, who took command with a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter.

Senior Hannah Stajcar closed out her prep hoops career by scoring 14 of her game-high 18 points in the first half to help BC lead for much of the first three quarters.

The Maroons led 22-17 at halftime, and BC held a 27-20 after senior Aleesha LaBreche buried a 3-pointer with 6 minutes, 17 seconds left in the third quarter.

Gilham answered with an inside bucket before Stajcar made it 29-22 at the 5:20 mark.

That was the end of the good news for the Maroons.

The Indians ran off seven straight, capped by a Gilham 3-pointer to tie the game at 29 with 2:50 left in the quarter.

Stajcar hit one of two free throws 28 seconds later to give the Maroons their final lead of the night at 30-29.

Marti EagleFeathers hit a jumper and Jessica Magee grabbed a rebound and sank a turn-around jump shot on back-to-back Browning possessions, giving the Indians a lead they never surrendered.

Butte Central cut that lead to 33-32 when senior Danika Neumann buried a base-line jump shot late in the  third.

Mariah Cooney grabbed a rebound and pulled BC to within 35-34 with a pair of free throws. Over the next 5 minutes, Browning outscored BC 13-1.

Neumann and junior Shelby Paffhausen hit 3-pointers to pull BC within 48-41. The Maroons, however, couldn’t get any more long balls to fall, even though the Indians left the door slightly ajar by struggling at the free throw line down the stretch.

Brooke Carlson and Magee each scored 10 points or the Indians.

Neumann added eight for the Maroons. Senior Alysea Pica scored four points, while LaBreche, Paffhausen and Cooney each scored three and senior Annie Ossello tossed in two.

Cooney, who fouled out with just under 2 minutes left in the game, grabbed 13 rebounds. On the day — including a loser-out win over Havre — Cooney pulled down 31 rebounds.

Junior Chandra McCurdy and freshman Shawnee Hjelt also contribute for the Maroons.

Senior Danee Leary, BC’s leading scorer during the regular season, ended her prep hoops career on the bench. The future Montana Tech Oredigger suffered a head injury last week and had to sit out the entire tournament.

This year marks the first since 2010 that BC didn’t hoist a trophy at the end of the State tournament.

The Maroons won it all in 2011 before placing second last year.

Complete stats

Marti EagleFeathers continued her remarkable tournament by scoring 17 points to lead Browning to a 56-47 win over Frenchtown in a loser-out game this morning at the Butte Civic Center.

Browning (13-11) will player the winner of the Butte Central-Havre game, which will tip off at about 11:30.

Freshman Tiara Gilham scored nine points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the victory. Courtney Little Dog scored seven, while Ashley Burd and Shelsey St. Goddard each scored six.

Vanessa Stavish scored 17 points and pulled down 13 rebounds to lead Frenchtown, which closes the season with a 17-7 record.

BROWNING (13-11) — Rachel Heptner 0 2-2 2, Ashley Burd 2 2-2 6, Tiara Gilham 3 3-3 9, Courtney Little Dog 3 1-3 7, Marti Eagle Feathers 8 1-1 17, Jessica Magee 2 0-0 4, Shelsey St. Goddard 2 0-0 6, Brooke Carlson 1 2-2 5. Totals 21 11-13 56
FRENCHTOWN (17-6) — Abby Indreland 3 0-3 8, Holly Jacobs 0 0-0 0, Larissa Berg 0 1-6 1, Kayla Blood 3 0-0 7, Vanessa Stavish 7 3-5 17, Haley Cyr 2 2-2 6, Kenzie Reid 0 0-0 0, Alli Moe 0 0-0 0, Shaela Wallen 2 0-0 4, Keegan Wickman 1 2-2 4. Totals 18 8-18 47.
Browning                   15  15    9   17 — 56
Frenchtown               10  10  14   13 — 47
3-point goals — Browning 3-12 (St. Goddard 2-2, Carlson 1-5), Frenchtown 3-16 (Indreland 2-7, Blood 1-2). Rebounds — Browning 39 (Gilham 12), Frenchtown 47 (Stavish 13). Assists — Browning 11 (Eagle Feathers 5), Frenchtown 10 (Blood 6). Blocks — Browning 3 (Magee 2), Frenchtown 1 (Berg 1). Steals — Browning 10 (Eagle Feathers 3), Frenchtown 9 (Blood 3).
Total Fouls — Browning 16, Frenchtown 16. Fouled Out — Gilham, Eagle Feathers; Blood. Turnovers — Browning 20, Frenchtown 22.

Maroons top Havre, will face Browning

Butte Central senior Mariah Cooney looks for a pass from teammate Chandra McCurdy during Saturday's loser-out game at the Civic Center. Havre's Neya Bischoff defends on the play. (Bill Foley photo)

By Bill Foley

In the moments following Butte Central’s upset loss to Browning in Thursday Class A State tournament opener, Mariah Cooney defiantly declared that her high school basketball career would not end with a loss.

Cooney apparently meant what she said.

The 6-foot Butte Central senior scored 15 points and pulled down a career-high 19 rebounds today to lead the Maroons (18-5) to a 51-37 win over Havre in a loser-out game at the Butte Civic Center.

That set up a rematch with the Indians in tonight’s 6:30 consolation game where possession of the third-place trophy is on the line.

“I don’t want to end our season,” said Cooney, who also blocked three shots in the win. “I want to set an example for our younger girls. Things didn’t go our way on Thursday, but we are not a team that is just going to lay down and die. We want to show what we’re made of.”

Fellow senior Alysea Pica also set an example Saturday. The guard scored 15 of her game-high 18 points in the second half to help make sure that her birthday is a busy one.

The 18 points was a career high for Pica.

“It’s her birthday,” Cooney said. “She’s 18 and she had 18 points? Right on.”

Seniors Danika Neumann and Hannah Stajcar chipped in with eight and seven points, respectively. Senior Aleesha LaBreche scored two, while junior Chandra McCurdy tossed in one.

Senior Annie Ossello, junior Shelby Paffhausen and freshman Shawnee Hjelt also contributed to the BC victory, which was secured by a 10-2 run in the final 3 minutes, 7 seconds of the fourth quarter.

Peyton Filius scored 12 points to lead the Central A champion Blue Ponies, who close the season at 14-9. Morgan Mazurkiewicz scored 10 points, while Brandy Lambourne tossed in 10 points.

Havre, which fell to Laurel in the late semifinal game Friday, found itself in a 7-0 hole. The Ponies, though, kept battling.

A put back by Tori Mazurkiewicz and a drive by Lambourne as time expired pulled Havre to within 19-18 at halftime.

Havre took a 21-18 lead when Filius sank a baseline 3-pointer 23 seconds into the second half.

That was the last Havre lead of the day, though. That was also when Pica took off, hitting back-to-back buckets for a 23-21 lead.

Morgan Mazurkiewicz tied at 23 before Cooney took a Pica pass to start a 6-0 run that put the Maroons up for good.

BC led 31-27 after three quarters, and BC put the game away with 20 points in the fourth quarter. Stajcar got it all started by banking in a 3-pointer.

Thursday it was the Indians who got those kind of shots to fall, avenging a 72-52 loss to BC in the season opener.

Tonight, Cooney said the Maroons are ready to win the rubber match.

“Everybody’s tough at State. You have to show up to play, and we didn’t show up on Thursday,” Cooney said. “I think Browning is a good team. But we didn’t play as well as we should have on Thursday, and we have some things to prove.”

Cooney said the recipe for success is simple. The Maroons can’t let the Indians win the battle of the boards like they did on Thursday.

“We’re going to rebound,” Cooney said. “What, did we give up 19 offensive boards against Browning? We are not going to do that. We’re going to rebound, box out and finish.”

BUTTE CENTRAL (18-5) — Hannah Stojcar 2 2-4 7, Mariah Cooney 5 5-6 15, Alysea Pica 4 10-16 18, Annie Ossello 0 0-0 0, Danika Neumann 3 2-4 8, Chandra McCurdy 0 1-2 1, Shelby Paffhausen 0 0-0 0, Shawnee Hjelt 0 0-0 0, Aleesha LaBreche 1 0-0 2. Totals 15 20-32 51.
HAVRE (14-9) — Brandy Lambourne 2 6-6 10, Peyton Filius 4 2-2 12, Morgan Mazurkiewicz 4 0-0 11, Lacey Ward 0 2-4 2, Neya Bischoff 0 0-3 0, Tori Mazurkiewicz 1 0-0 2, Haley Ohm 0 0-0 0, Dani Wagner 0 0-0 0. Totals 7 3-7 21.
Butte Central             10    9   12   20 — 51
Havre                            7   11    9   10 — 37
3-point goals — BCl 1-4 (Stajcar 1-1), Havre 5-21 (M. Mazurkiewicz 3-10, Filius 2-6). Rebounds — BC 42 (Cooney 19), Havre 27 (Waid 7). Assists — BC 3 (Pica, Ossello, Cooney 1), Havre 6 (M. Mazurkiewicz 4); Blocks —BC 4 (Cooney 3, McCurdy), Havre 1 (Bischoff 1). Steals — BC 5 (Neumann 2), Havre 8 (Lambourne 2, Waid 2, Bischoff 2). Fouls — BC 15, Havre 22. Fouled Out — Waid. Turnovers — BC 18, Havre 12.