One of those tourneys

RONAN – One of those nights you would just as soon forget about it.

The Thompson Falls Blue Hawk boys wound up season play at the Western B divisional tournament in Ronan last week, suffering through a colder-than-cold shooting night in a 69-42 loss to Florence in the first round Thursday, coming back to eliminate Troy 68-29 Friday and finally, falling to a red-hot Anaconda team 79-48 in loser-out play Saturday.

Bigfork defeated Loyola in the Western B chipper Saturday and Anaconda then stopped Loyola again in a Monday night challenge to claim the division's other spot into the State B tournament in Missoula March 8-10.

A talented team that played the better teams in the division well each time out during the regular season, the Hawks never seemed to get untracked in the loss to Florence, a team that Thompson Falls had defeated in Thompson Falls earlier this season.

Florence's Marcus Zeiler lit up the Hawks for 40 points, including several 3-pointers and a bunch of breakaway dunk shots in the second half. Not a bad effort considering the Hawks had geared up their defense towards guarding the explosive Zeiler.

"We knew that we needed to at least limit Zeiler some, but I have never seen him shoot quite like that before. He had a career game," Hawk coach Jake Mickelson said. "He torched us and when he gets it going from the outside like that, it opens up the floor for the rest of their kids."

On the other side of things, the Hawks had trouble finding their shooting range and only four Falls players ended up scoring in the game.

Danny Hoisington led the Hawks with 15 points, Payton Frields scored 13, Nate Thibeault nine and Jake Long five.

Brent Stroppel added 10 points for Florence, Tyce Pederson six, Dillon Christopherson five and Parker Hotsinpiller four.

The Hawks got back to their feet with the win over Troy Friday.

Hoisington scored 15 more points to lead the Hawk win, Long added 10, Thibeault nine, Grant Lundberg eight, Michael Johnson seven, Dylan Beckman six, Frields four, Bennett King three, and Ryan Schraeder, Trey Fisher and Kade Pardee two apiece.

Dylan Cummings paced Troy with 11 points but no other Trojan managed more than six.

Thompson Falls' season came to an end in the loser-out game with Anaconda Saturday morning.

"Anaconda came out hot and stayed that way," Mickelson offered. "They were playing their best basketball of the season at just the right time last week."

University of Montana football recruit Braxton Hill led the Copperheads to the win with 25 points, Trent Mikalatos added 15, Braedon Sawyer 13 and Michael Galle 12.

Hoisington closed out his high-scoring senior season with 20 points to lead the Hawks, Lundberg added seven, Thibeault six, Long four, Beckman three, and Schraeder, Frields, Fisher and Pardee two apiece.

Anaconda had taken unbeaten Bigfork to two overtimes in the semifinals Friday, losing only 58-57 to the heavily favored Vikings in that game.

"I wouldn't be surprised if those two teams end up meeting for the State B championship," Mickelson said. "They certainly have the potential to do that, they are both very solid teams."