Butte Central boys and girls home openers Thursday against Park High

The Butte Central Maroons boys and girls basketball teams will make their home debuts this Thursday with a doubleheader against Park High School at the Maroon Activities Center.

The girls' game will start the evening out with a 6pm tipoff time.  After a narrow one-point loss at East Helena to start the season, the Maroons dropped two at the Tipoff Tournament last weekend in Frenchtown, a 58-16 defeat at the hands of the Fergus Golden Eagles on Friday and a 24-67 loss to the Browning Indians.  The girls are led by second year Head Coach Quinn Carter and return such experienced players as Mollie Drew, Kathryn Lalicker and the Stajcar sisters, Arika and Ali.

On the boys side of things this appears to be a rebuilding year for coach Brodie Kelly's squad who lost a ton of scoring and experience to graduation.  Looks can be deceiving.  The Maroons come into the contest a perfect 3-0 after double-digit victories over East Helena, defending state champion Fergus and the always difficult Browning Indians.  The Maroons, known for Coach Kelly's stifling man-to-man defense, are putting up just over 65 points per game and are getting over 20 of them from returning guard Owen "Big Shot" McPartland and nearly a double-double from forward Jack Keeley.  Zane Moodry is the man in the middle this year and freshman Josh Sutton returns with a year of varsity experience under his belt.  No, that is not a misprint.  The boys game is set to follow the girls at around 7:30pm.

After Thursday's affair against Park High, the Maroons will host another doubleheader Saturday afternoon against the Polson Pirates with the girls contest scheduled for a 4pm tipoff with the boys to follow at approximately 5:30.