In a game in which neither team led by more than five points, the Capital Bruins defeated the Butte Bulldogs 47-43 in Helena on Thursday night, defeating the last remaining undefeated team in Class AA in the process.
HELENA, Mont. — As of Thursday night, there are no undefeated teams left in Class AA boys basketball.
It was the result of Capital (5-3, 2-1) defeating previously undefeated Butte (7-1, 2-1) 47-43 in a thrilling game between the West AA foes in which neither team led by more than five points.
The game was more defensively focused than many expected, with neither team scoring in the first four minutes, but a two-handed dunk from Butte junior Brady Hanson finally broke things up.
The Bulldogs headed to the locker room with an 18-17 advantage, even though Butte High School’s career leading scorer Hudson Ruedke didn’t make a single field goal through the first 16 minutes.
Capital took the biggest lead of the night for either team in the third quarter on a 3-pointer by senior Will Spotorno, but Butte eventually cut the gap to one point with less than two minutes left.
Here, junior Carson Toivonen hit a 3-pointer to put the Bruins back on top by four points, and the home team continued to lead for the rest of the game.
A key part of Capital’s win over Butte was decided as the Bruins outscored the Bulldogs 15-5 in offensive rebounds, scoring 18 second-chance points to Butte’s six.
Junior Landon Levang led all scorers in the win with 16 of 17 shooting, while Cade Stajkar and Josh Liston each had 10 in the loss. Luedtke was held to a season-low nine games.
Butte is scheduled to return home to play Helena on Saturday, January 17th, but the Capitals’ next game will also be against their crosstown rival Bengals, which will be played the following Saturday, January 24th.