By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA – In a game that had big implications to determine who would host the Class 6A Area 8 tournament, Helena and Chelsea battled it out until the final seconds as the Huskies held on for a huge 40-38 win on Friday, Jan. 25 in the final regular season area game.

It was the second time the two teams have met this season with Chelsea winning the first matchup 55-44 on Jan. 15. This time around, the game had more on the line as a win for Chelsea locked up the chance to host the area tournament, while a win for Helena meant a tiebreaker scenario would come into play.

It was clear to start the game that Helena wanted to limit Chelsea’s opportunities to get the ball inside to center Daniel Washington and in the first half, the Huskies did a great job causing turnovers and disrupting things for Chelsea.

Helena ended the first quarter on a 7-0 run to take an 11-6 lead and continued the momentum into the second quarter.

Helena’s Caden Pierce finished with nine first half points while Daunte Cave chipped in with seven points as the Huskies took a 22-13 lead into halftime.

The biggest difference, however, was holding Washington to just six points in the first half and 10 points for the game. He would be the only Hornet to finish in double figures.

In the last meeting, Washington dominated Helena inside finishing with 16 points as Helena head coach Billy Grant said the interior defense would be a point of emphasis on Jan. 25.

“Their big guys gave us so many problems at their place and they have a really good player in Washington so we just had to get bodies in there near him,” Grant said. “It’s hard to get around him and we wanted to get active hands in there on the ball and try to get as much help as we can. They made some big shots but we didn’t want him to just beat us because he just controlled us at their place.”

Although Helena controlled the first half, Chelsea would fight back in the second half getting some help from KJ Hall offensively after he went scoreless in the first half.

With Chelsea trailing 30-23 late in the third quarter, Hall stepped up and buried a 3-pointer to pull the Hornets to within four. Washington would hit a free throw before the end of the quarter as Chelsea cut the lead to 30-27 heading to the final period.

The late third quarter scoring run seemed to spark Chelsea as the momentum carried over into the final period.

In the fourth quarter, Hall would hit his second 3-pointer of the game to trim Helena’s lead to 34-30. This was the start of an 8-0 run as Jake Tierney buried a 3-pointer and Matthew Lanzi hit a shot to give Chelsea a 35-34 lead with 2:40 to go in the game. It was the Hornets first lead since early in the first quarter.

Although Helena had lost the lead late, there was no panic as Pierce quickly came down and buried a shot to regain the lead for the Huskies at 36-35.

Helena kept the one point lead until Chelsea was forced to foul the Huskies with 28.9 seconds to go as Matthew Hobbick went to the line for a 1-and-1 and calmly sank both free throws to extend Helena’s lead to 38-35.

Following that, Chelsea turned the ball over with 17.8 seconds left and were forced to foul again.

Cave made 1-of-2 free throws with 14.1 second left to essentially ice the game for Helena.

Hall would hit one more deep 3-pointer with 1.9 seconds left to make it 39-38 but it was too little, too late for Chelsea as Helena held on for the big win.

“I’m proud of our guys to hang in there and fight back because we had that lead, got down and fought back and that’s just the kind of guys we’ve got,” Grant said. “They won’t quit.”

Pierce led all scorers with 14 points for Helena while Cave finished with 13. Hall would finish with nine points for Chelsea.

With the Helena win, both the Huskies and Chelsea finished regular season area play at 4-2, bringing the tiebreaker scenario into play.

A coin toss to determine who would host the area tournament was done on Monday, Jan. 28 which came out in Helena’s favor.

As the No. 1 seed, Helena will play No. 4 seed Pelham the week of Feb. 4, while No. 2 seed Chelsea will take on No. 3 seed Calera. The area tournament games will be played on Feb. 6 and Feb. 8.