Heat keep progressing

Progress is in the eye of the beholder.

When the beholder is the head coach, that progress means a lot more, especially when it leads to winning basketball games.

Coach Scott Fredrickson and his progressive Hot Springs Savage Heat boys improved to 2-1 in District 14C play and overall with a 55-52 win over Charlo in Hot Springs Friday.

The Heat have two more 14C games on tap this week, playing at Plains Thursday and hosting Noxon Friday.

Fredrickson was pleased with how his team finished out the win over Charlo. Leading 40-28 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Heat held off a concerted Viking rally down the stretch to post the win.

“I like how we are progressing, we did some good things to finish that game,” he said. “We still need to work on our free throw shooting but we responded to the situation better this time.”

Jack McAllister led the Heat to the win over the rival Vikings with 17 points and 16 rebounds, committing only one turnover in the game, Mario Garcia chipped in with 14 points and 12 rebounds, and Kyle Lawson added 12 points, with six of those coming in the decisive fourth quarter.

Quincy Styles added seven points for the Heat, Nathan Lawhead three and Lincoln Slonaker two.

Roper Edwards bucketed 17 points to pace Charlo and Phil Marquez scored 16.

Fredrickson looks forward to the rest of the 14C campaign.

“District 14C is very well balanced, the teams look very even right now,” he said. “Plains played Clark Fork very tough last week, we expect to have our hands full with them. And we look forward to seeing what Noxon looks like too. It should be a fun weekend.”