EAST HELENA — East Helena is set to host the annual Class A East-West Tip-Off Tournament for the first time.
The tournament features the boys and girls basketball teams from six schools — three from the state’s eastern half (East Helena, Laurel and Glendive) and three from the state’s western half (Ronan, Whitefish and Frenchtown). Tournament play begins Friday and runs through Saturday.
“It’s big,” East Helena activities director Shaun Murgel said of getting to host the tournament. “The more you can host, it brings the excitement of our own crowd in. And we get to see some great basketball this weekend.”
Compared to other Class A schools, East Helena’s sports programs are still relatively new. But East Helena’s boys basketball coach said getting to host an event like the Tip-Off Tournament will help strengthen his program.
“Oh, absolutely,” said East Helena boys basketball head coach Ty Ridgeway. “It’ll be a tournament atmosphere. ... And we got to get these kids used to that tournament atmosphere. And hosting something like this, the kids will have some confidence. They’ll have the home crowd behind them. And yeah, we just hope to pull off a couple of wins.”
And in addition to that tournament atmosphere, East Helena’s girls basketball coach said hosting the tournament will allow his team to play schools the Vigilantes otherwise wouldn’t have scheduled.
“They’re non-conference games,” said East Helena girls basketball head coach Carson Bender. “They’re against Northwest A opponents, teams we never see, so that’s awesome. We just get to focus on what we’re doing, what we want to do to get better, so it’s a nice, kind of non-stressful, non-conference thing.”
Below is the schedule for the tournament.
Friday
Ronan vs. Laurel, 12 p.m. (girls)
Ronan vs. Laurel, 1:30 p.m. (boys)
Frenchtown vs. Glendive, 3 p.m. (girls)
Frenchtown vs. Glendive, 4:30 p.m. (boys)
Whitefish vs. East Helena, 6 p.m. (girls)
Whitefish vs. East Helena, 7:30 p.m. (boys)
Saturday
Whitefish vs. Glendive, 9 a.m. (girls)
Whitefish vs. Glendive, 10:30 a.m. (boys)
Frenchtown vs. Laurel, 12 p.m. (girls)
Frenchtown vs. Laurel, 1:30 p.m. (boys)
Ronan vs. East Helena, 3 p.m. (girls)
Ronan vs. East Helena, 4:30 p.m. (boys)
