A time to win

The Lady Hawks have proven to be one of the best basketball teams in western Montana this winter; now they need to prove it one more time at this week's Western B divisional tournament in Eureka.

Eureka will open its hosting of the Western B playing Deer Lodge at 1 p.m. Wednesday, followed by Bigfork versus Loyola at 3.

In the evening session, Anaconda will face off with Mission at 5 p.m. with Thompson Falls playing Florence at 7.

The Lady Hawks' last game played was a 55-30 win over Florence in Thompson Falls February 20. Coach Chadd Laws is taking nothing for granted in the return engagement with the Lady Falcons.

With the top three teams moving on to the State B tourney in Billings March 11-13, the Lady Hawks really want to be one of those three teams.

Laws thinks that the Lady Hawks just need to keep on being the great team they proved to be all season after a very impressive 13-2 regular season. The Lady Hawks' only losses this season came at the hands of Eureka (in Thompson Falls early this season) and Seeley-Swan (in Seeley Lake several weeks ago).

The Hawks avenged the loss to Eureka by defeating the Lady Lions in Eureka in early February, and starting point guard Ellie Baxter did not play in the loss at Seeley.

Proving their championship chops, Seeley-Swan won the Western C divisional tournament championship in Deer Lodge last week, adding to their unbeaten record along the way.

All of which leaves Laws where he started anyway – worrying about the next game up or his Lady Hawks.

"You have to take things one game at a time, we are concentrating on Florence," he said. "They are a really good defensive team that cannot be taken lightly.

"We just need to keep doing the things that got us here," he added. "Play sound defense, rebound hard and take care of the ball. We just have to play our game and the rest should take care of itself."