It was a pretty good day to be a Bobcat Saturday. First the Bobcat men’s basketball team won a very hard fought game against the Grizzlies in an opening round Big Sky game 56-54, in Missoula. At the same time the Bobcat’s women’s team beat Eastern Washington 85-67 in Bozeman, and locked up the third seed in the women’s tourney that starts next week, in Missoula. The Bobcat men, who had been swept badly by the Griz in the regular season, followed a pattern they have exhibited all season by staying close to the favored Grizzlies and then using a late push to pull out a very narrow victory, in this nail biter. The win moves the Bobcats on to the second round game in Ogden Utah, the site of the semifinals and championship games. As an unabashed Bobcat fan I have to admit as happy as I was to see them get the win in my home town I was more happy for the Coaches and players to finally see them get a monkey off their back. I hope they can use this win to give them some confidence, and let them travel to Ogden and Have some fun. Going into the tourney the Bobcats are the only team in the conference that has wins over the tourney top three seeds. They could do some damage. Binford's team seems to be playing their best game right in March. They are going to be a team nobody is going to want to play in the first round.


In additional good news for the Bobcat family, Binford 2009 Montana recruits are 2 for 2 so far in state championship games. Rachel Semansky’s Highwood team defeated Belt 53-49in the Class C championship and Chelsea Banis’s Fairfield team defeated Malta 56-47. I am still awaiting the results of the Class A championship which features future Bobcat Ashley Albert’s Hamilton team against Anaconda,


The Grizzly’s women’s team also continued their dominance of the Big Sky Conference with a 70-60 win over Portland State, in a game that determined the site of the conference tournament. Montana finished the conference 15-1 and will enter the tourney this Thursday as the #1 seed and favorite to get the automatic bid to the NCAA tourney.