The Plains High School Gym was full to capacity Friday evening as the the second-ranked Arlee Warriors came to town to face the top-ranked and undefeated Horsemen in one of the most anticipated Class C basketball matchups of the season. The teams fought a close battle in the first half before Arlee pulled away in the third quarter and went on to hand the Horsemen their first loss of the season.

The gym was two-thirds of the way to the full capacity when the junior varsity players were on the court at 3:00 p.m. The gym was already in high gear hours before the boys began their warm-ups on the basketball court, with the fans leading the way. There was no question, this was going to be a very intense game for everyone; the fans, coaches, and the players.

Just before the start of the varsity boys basketball game, Plains Superintendent Thomas Chisholm announced there were already 525 people in the gym and asked people to “Please get more cozy.” with one another as there were more people in line outside wanting to have a seat to watch the game. He read a prepared statement thanking the Arlee and Plains communities and fans for their continued support of the student athletes.

Once the boys’ basketball game had gotten underway, Arlee and Plains battled back and forth with Arlee grabbing a 41-35 lead at the half.

One-third of the crowd was cheering on the Arlee Warriors, at times standing and yelling in an attempt to drown-out the cheers coming from the Plains students and fans. The third quarter set the final decisive pace of the game. That was the toppling point for the Horsement as the Arlee Warriors scored 10 unanswered points within the first several minutes of the third quarter. The Plains Horsemen tried their very best to bring the game back to their favor, only to be met with a fierce opponent who was determined to keep the winning margin big and keep Plains from besting them again, as they had done back in December.

Arlee’s Philip Malatare led the Warriors scoring with 29 points, followed closely by Will Mestreth, who had 22 points. Plain’s Aaren VonHeeder led the Horsemen with 16 points, followed closely by Jay VonHeeder with 14.

Arlee 81

Plains 59

ARLEE — Will Mestreth 22, Philip Malatare 29, Tyler Tanner 24, Greg Whitesell 4 Alex Morgan 2.

PLAINS — Ryan Ovitt 13, Aaren VonHeeder 16, Kyle Weeks 10, Alec Cole 6, Jay VonHeeder 14.