Hawks are hard-trying, high-flying

by John Hamilton

Ask about the results but never question the effort.

The hard-trying, high-flying Blue Hawks lost a pair of hotly contested games last week, falling to District 7B-leading Bigfork 63-58 in Thompson Falls Friday and to District 6B's Deer Lodge Wardens 59-47 in Deer Lodge Saturday.

Coach Jake Mickelson did not like losing the games but he does appreciate the effort his Blue Hawks are playing with right now. The game with the very young but very athletic Bigfork Vikings was a perfect case in point.

Using efficient entry passes to score on several alley-oop slam dunk plays, the Vikings threatened to run away with the game at times, but every time they tried to pull away, the Hawks battled back. They may have been making some errors at times, but they were eager errors.

"I am liking our intensity, these kids are playing with a lot of fire," Mickelson said. "We are still learning to play with each other and making a few mistakes along the way, but these guys are playing with a lot of desire right now."

Trailing only 33-32 at halftime of the Bigfork game, the Hawks watched the Vikings go on an 11-0 run at the start of the third quarter to grab a 44-32 lead. Bigfork's Walker Fisher hit three 3-pointers in a little over a minute of game time to jump start the Viking attack.

Undaunted, the Hawks kept fighting back into contention the rest of the night before finally falling back to defeat. "That was a rough start to the second half," Mickelson said, "but these kids have been digging their ways out of holes in games all season. There is no quit in these guys."

Sidney Akinde posted what is believed to be his third straight double double in leading the Hawks, scoring 19 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, besides finding two steals, and passing out three assists.

Ryan Schraeder was good for 12 points, two assists and two steals, Nathan Schraeder added eight points, two assists and three steals, Jack Green seven points, four boards and two steals, and Justin Morgan, Ethan Brown and Cody Burk four points each.

Burk also added five rebounds and Morgan three rebounds and two steals.

Scoring for Bigfork was unavailable.

In Deer Lodge, the hometown Wardens threw a 1-3-1 zone at Thompson Falls and flustered the Blue Hawk shooters.

"We can do better, we have got work to do when it comes to playing against a zone," Mickelson said. "Deer Lodge is a pretty solid team too, though, they play smart."

Burk bucketed 14 points to lead the Hawks in Deer Lodge, Nathan Schraeder added 12, Akinde eight, Brown seven and Green six.

Akinde brought down a team-high eight rebounds, Nathan Schraeder had six, Burk five and Brown and Morgan four each. Green had five assists and five steals, and the Schraeder brothers were good for four assists each.

Scoring for Deer Lodge was unavailable.

The Hawks were set to host Noxon for a non-conference game Tuesday but results of that game were not available at press time. Thompson Falls' only other game this week is a home date Thursday against Clark Fork.