Heat boys fall just short versus Charlo

The Savage Heat boys finished regular season play with a win and a loss over the weekend, beating St. Regis 46-43 Thursday on senior night in Hot Springs and falling to Charlo 52-51 on the road Saturday.

The Savage Heat came out blazing against St. Regis, leading 20-9 after the first quarter. There was no looking back as Hot Springs kept the lead for the rest of the game.

The Knudsen brothers led the charge against St. Regis, with Brandon scoring 21 points and brother Tyler adding 17. Kyle Lawson scored 11 points against the Tigers, Tyler Carr had seven, Luke Waterbury give, Jack McAllister three points, and Benedict Waterbury and Niccolo Costa each scored two. Tanner Day led St. Regis with 10 points.

Tyler Knudsen took the lead against Charlo with 17 points for Hot Springs, while brother Brandon scored 17, Carr and McAllister had six points each and Waterbury and Lawson each contributed four points. Landers Smith led the Vikings with 20 points.

“St. Regis was a good win for us,” coach Cameron Barber said. “I was really proud of how the team, especially the seniors, played their final game of the season in Hot Springs.

“I couldn’t ask for better seniors than our two Tylers (Knudsen and Carr),” he continued. “Both of them have worked so hard this season and it has really been showing up on the court.”

The Heat went into Charlo hoping for the win and third place in final conference standings, but were just denied; although they did have their chances to win at the free throw line in the late going.

“We were not moving the ball very well and were settling for jump shots early,” Barber said. “We made some adjustments and started getting to the hoop more in the second half, but we just didn’t quite have enough.”

Barber and the Heat will be concentrating on boxing out better on the boards this week. “We gave up 15 offensive rebounds which led to 14 second-chance points,” he said.

Seeded No. 4 in this week’s District 14C tournament at Pablo, the Heat will open the tourney against No. 5 Noxon at 12:45 p.m. Thursday. See conference preview tourney story for more.