A year ago, BHS won the consolation game after losing to Helena Capital in the first round.

After falling to eventual champion Missoula Big Sky in the semifinals on Friday, the Hawks came back Saturday morning to defeat Capital 42-31 in a loser-out game at Butte High School. Elli Graff scored a game-high 17 points, two short of her season high, and grabbed 13 rebounds, also a game high, to push her team to victory. Kellie Cole scored 14 points.

Saturday represented the final appearance for seniors Gabriella Krevat, Coriann Clark, Emilee Grubb, Breanna Winters and Graff.

Bozeman closed the season at 18-7.

Missoula Big Sky won its second consecutive championship Saturday night with a 56-46 victory over Butte.

Helena Capital 54, Bozeman Boys 51

Matt Miller’s three-point play with 2.8 seconds left lifted Capital into the consolation game and ended the season for the Bozeman boys in a loser-out game Saturday morning at Butte High School. Bozeman, which trailed 47-40, had tied the game on an alley-oop pass from Gabe Rucker to Jacob Owsley.

Owsley led the Hawks, who finished the season with a 17-6 record, with 14 points and a game-high eight rebounds. P.J. Burns had 12 points and Tanner Roderick 11, including three 3-pointers.

Ben Ternes led Capital with 17 points and five 3-pointers.

The game was the final one for seniors Zach Brown, Will Waylander, Andy Ballinger, Matt Mullins, Rucker and Burns.

Bozeman girls 42, Capital 31

Bozeman 11 5 11 15 — 42

Capital 10 7 4 10 — 31

Bozeman (18-7) — Jenna Banks 0-4 0-0 0, Coriann Clark 0-5 0-0 0, Lindsay Manning 1-5 0-0 3, Emilee Grubb 1-5 2-3 4, Alexa Dawkins 2-6 0-0 4, Elli Graff 7-8 3-9 17, Kellie Cole 4-8 6-11 14. Totals 15-42 11-23 42.

Capital — Kalli Heller 0-2 0-0 0, Sammi Bignell 2-11 0-0 5, Kelsi Brekke 4-13 4-7 14, Caity Pilgeram 0-1 0-0 0, Alecia Wilson 0-5 1-4 1, Kaci Matthies 0-1 0-0 0, Jordan Johnston 4-8 1-6 9, Kelsey Grey 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 11-43 6-17 31.

3-point goals — Boz 1-14 (Manning 1-4, Banks 0-4, Clark 0-2, Cole 0-2, Grubb 0-1, Winters 0-1), HC 3-19 (Brekke 2-8, Bignell 1-8, Heller 0-1, Pilgeram 0-1, Wilson 0-1). Rebounds — Boz 40 (Graff 13), HC 32 (Bignell 10, Grey 7).

Capital 54, Bozeman boys 51

Bozeman 15 7 10 19 — 51

Capital 12 17 7 18 — 54

Bozeman (17-6) – Tanner Roderick 4-17 0-0 11, Will Waylander 0-1 0-0 0, P.J. Burns 3-6 5-5 12, Gabe Rucker 3-8 0-0 7, Jacob Owsley 6-8 2-2 14, Andy Ballinger 0-2 0-0 0, Matt Mullins 3-6 1-2 7. Totals 19-48 8-9 51.

Capital — Ben Ternes 6-10 0-1 17, Chris Darlow 0-2 0-0 0, Kelan Farry 1-3 0-0 3, Matt Miller 6-14 3-5 15, Carter Bignell 1-2 1-2 3, Josh Dirks 1-2 2-6 4, Tyler Erickson 5-12 2-4 12. Totals 20-45 8-18 54.

3-point goals — Boz 5-16 (Roderick 3-8, Waylander 0-1, Burns 1-2, Rucker 1-5), HC 6-15 (Ternes 5-7, Darlow 0-2, Farry 1-1, Miller 0-4, Erickson 0-1). Rebounds — Boz 29 (Owsley 8, Mullins 7), HC 32 (Miller 6, Dirks 6).

He did not disappoint.

NICK WOLCOTT/CHRONICLE Tanner Roderick drives to the net a moment before getting fouled by Danny Desin during the Hawks win over Billings Senior Friday night.

The 6-foot-7 junior’s dunk on an early fast break highlighted the Hawks’ 9-0 first quarter run, giving the them a slim lead after the first eight minutes and bringing the whited-out Bozeman home crowd to its feet Friday night.

And after the Broncs began the fourth quarter on a 6-0 run to cut what had been a 13-point third quarter lead to eight, an emphatic swat from Owsley indicated the beginning of the end for Senior’s season and punctuated Bozeman’s 52-48 win to advance to next week’s Class AA tournament.

Owsley finished with 18 points and five rebounds.

“We talked all week about pounding it inside,” Bozeman coach Wes Holmquist said. “They don’t start many guys over 6-foot so that was something we wanted to exploit.”

Broncs’ head coach Jim Sterger knew about Bozeman’s size advantage, too.

“We’re undersized and we aren’t physically big like Bozeman or CMR,” Sterger said. “So we tried to throw some things at them that they hadn’t seen before.”

The Broncs’ attempted to combat Bozeman’s bulk by slowing down the pace of the game, something very uncharacteristic of the team Holmquist had been scouting.

“We knew there was a possibility of them changing it up against us but it was still tough to adjust,” Holmquist said. “That’s the exact opposite style of what they’ve been doing all year. They led the state in 3-point attempts and makes, so seeing them slow it down was a little bit different”

With the new look, the Broncs came out firing.

With Chase Monson coming off one of many back screens the Broncs would set, the senior finished an easy inside two. It was followed by a fast break finish from Scott Owens to put Senior up 6-2 midway through the first quarter.

From there, Senior attempted to keep Bozeman (15-6) off the scoreboard by holding onto possessions, many of them for minutes at a time. The Broncs attempted just 11 shots in the first half.

The strategy might have worked if Bozeman had shot less than 57.9 percent from the field.

“We wanted to control the tempo of the game and I thought we did a good job of that,” Sterger said. “But we missed some shots and they made them. We can go to a lot of different sets with our guys, but it’s tough to combat shooting like that.”

After ending the first quarter on a 9-0 spurt, the Hawks began the second quarter on a 10-2 run, extending their lead to 14 when Will Waylander drilled his second 3-pointer of the quarter.

From there, Senior chipped away, including outscoring Bozeman 22-13 in the final eight minutes. But with Bozeman in control of the lead for close to 26 minutes and up eight with 45 seconds to play, the outcome was never really in doubt.

“Give Senior credit,” Holmquist said. “They hung in there and never quit. But I’m proud of our kids tonight. I don’t care what the scoreboard says, we played a solid game.”

“Our kids did exactly what we supposed to do,” Sterger said. “We were playing against a much more talented team and we hung with them. That team in there (Bozeman) is pretty good. They’ve only lost five games and they beat CMR. We have nothing to hang our heads about because that’s a team that’s going to be dangerous at State.”

Bozeman now moves on to a first round matchup with Glacier at 9 a.m. on Thursday in Butte. With the early wake-up call, Holmquist said his kids will start conditioning their bodies today.

“We want them up by 7 a.m. for the rest of this week. Those who are pushing it will get up at 6,” Holmquist said. “But we let them know it’s not a punishment. After all, we are going to the State tournament.”