Lady Hawks bulldog Mission 67-48

They are hungry, hungry Hawks, and they are continuing to eat the season up as they go.

Coach Chadd Laws and his hungry Lady Hawks split District 7B conference games last week, devouring Mission 67-48 in Thompson Falls Thursday but losing 51-47 to the Lady Lions in Eureka Saturday.

Still dealing with hoop hunger pangs and now 2-1 in 7B play and 6-2 overall, the Hawks host Bigfork in another important conference encounter Thursday before joining the Hawk boys for a non-conference boy/girl doubleheader in Deer Lodge Saturday.

Laws has bought in on his latest team, and his team is buying in on what he’s selling.

“I am very happy with the effort these girls are putting into this,” he said. “They have great attitudes and are supporting each other every step of the way.”

The game with Bigfork could be a key one as far as the 7B race ends up going. The Vals have proven to be one of the tougher outs in the Western B as evidenced by a recent nine-point loss to Loyola, the undefeated, No. 1 ranked Class B team in the state.

“Bigfork has some players, they are a tough team,” Laws said. “This will be an interesting game to see how we match up.”

The Hawks enjoyed a pair of interesting games last week.

Against Mission, the Hawks used a 19-10 win of the third quarter to take a 51-36 lead into the fourth and went on to post the win.

The Hawks’ twin towers, Jody Detlaff and Megan Baxter led Thompson Falls, Detlaff with 20 points, 15 rebounds and three blocked shots, and Baxter with 16 points, 19 rebounds and five blocked shots.

Ellie Baxter added 12 points, six assists, two blocked shots and four steals, Belle Cooper six points and five rebounds, Faith Frields and Elli Pardee five points each and Riley Wilson three. Frields also had three assists and a pair of steals.

The sharp-shooting Azia Umphrey led Mission with 16 points and Karolyna Buck scored 12.

Laws said the Hawks fell behind early in Eureka, came back to take the lead late and finally, were edged out in the end.

“We had our chances down the stretch,” he said, “it was a good learning experience for us playing a close game like that.”

Megan Baxter registered another double double in leading the Hawks, scoring 16 points and clearing 15 rebounds, besides blocking four Eureka shot attempts.

Ellie Baxter scored 11 points and dished out four assists, Detlaff had 10 points, five rebounds and three steals, Pardee added seven points and four assists, and Caity Alexander two points. Frields also had four assists.

Individual scoring for Eureka was not available.