Butte, Hellgate boys to tangle Thursday in Butte, girls in Missoula

The Western AA conference portion of the Butte High boys' and girls' basketball seasons get underway Thursday as the Bulldogs will do battle with the Missoula Hellgate Knights.

The boys varsity game begins at 7pm at the Butte Civic Center and will be a great chance to see how the Bulldogs stack up against a team that is a perennial Saturday night contender at the State Tournament.  The Knights won the AA title last spring here in Butte and come into conference play this season with a 3-1 record with wins over Billings Skyview, Belgrade and Great Falls and an overtime loss to Billings West.  Butte High comes out of the break on the coattails of their best performance of the young season as they ground out a thrilling win over Butte Central to close out 2023 behind 32 points from sophomore guard Hudson Luedke.  The Bulldogs are 2-2 with a win over Belgrade and losses to Dillon and Bozeman also under their collective belt.

The girls' game will be played in Missoula and the first order of business for the Bulldogs will be slowing down Chloe Larsen who comes into the game as the second-leading scorer in Class AA averaging 19.7 points per game for the Knights.  Butte High, though, has an answer in junior forward Brityn Stewart who is the AA's fifth-leading scorer, putting in 18 per game.  The Bulldogs are 3-1 with wins so far over Bozeman, Belgrade and Butte Central and their lone loss coming to Dillon.  The Knights are 2-2 with overtime losses to Billings Skyview and Billings West to open the year and wins over Belgrade and Great Falls to close out December.  Tipoff time for the girls game is also 7pm.