Hawks shut down lions

When the Blue Hawks boys play bad, they can be had. But when they play well, well you had just better get out of the way.

The resurgent Blue Hawks pushed the Eureka Lions right back out of Sanders County Saturday, pounding out an impressive 49-28 win over the visiting Lions at TFHS.

The surprisingly convincing win puts the Hawks into better playoff position as District 7B teams jockey for the top three spots. The No. 4 and 5 teams from the regular season will meet in a 7B tournament play-in game early next week.

Bigfork, Mission, Thompson Falls and Eureka are currently the contenders in 7B while Troy is winless and will most likely finish fifth in the final standings. As such, the Hawks will play two important conference games to conclude the regular season this week, hosting Mission Thursday and visiting Bigfork Saturday.

If the Hawks continue to play lock-down defense like they did against Eureka, the sky could be the limit for this still relatively young Thompson Falls squad.

"That was a nice feel-good win for these guys," coach Jake Mickelson said. "We have been a little sporadic this season at times but really put together a great defensive effort against Eureka.

"We executed well and it seemed like Eureka got a little frustrated," he added. "We just weren't giving them any easy looks. We had 20 steals as a team, and I can't remember a team I've coached ever getting that many in a game. Our defensive intensity was outstanding."

One of the Hawks' most pleasant surprises this season, dynamic sophomore Sidney Akinde led Thompson Falls past the Lions, scoring 14 points, clearing eight rebounds and passing out five assists.

Another promising sophomore, Nathan Schraeder chipped in with eight points, four rebounds and three steals, Ethan Brown eight more points and three steals, Jack Green seven points, seven rebounds, three assists and an amazing eight steals, and Ryan Schraeder six points.

Trey Fisher threw in three points and speared six boards, Cody Burk added two points, two rebounds and two steals and Justin Morgan one point.

A.J. Pacella led Eureka with a paltry 10 points and Cory Chaney added nine.

In other action last week, the Hawks fell 66-48 to Loyola at TFHS Thursday. It looked like one those bad basketball days for the Hawks.

"We didn't play all that well but Loyola really shot the ball, too," Mickelson said. "They shot the lights out, we got behind and couldn't recover."

Akinde again led Thompson Falls with 15 points, Brown added eight, Ryan Schraeder seven, Fisher and Burk four apiece, Nathan Schraeder three and Trevor Harris one. Nathan Schraeder recorded team highs in assists (four) and steals (three).

Jaden Job led Loyola to the win with 22 points, Liam Haffey adde