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EUREKA – A hot finish beats a cold start anytime, especially in a basketball tournament.

Starting out ice-cold but finishing up red-hot, the Thompson Falls Blue Hawk boys won third place and a rare State B bid at the Western B divisional basketball tournament in Eureka last week. It will mark the Hawk boys' first appearance in a State B tournament since way back in 2005.

"This is a rare treat, a feather in the cap for this team," coach Jake Mickelson said. "And my hat is off to these kids – they knew they had to come up big if they wanted to realize our goal of getting to state, and they did it when they had to."

The Hawks were to have faced the Shelby Coyotes in the first round of the State B at Lockwood High School in Billings at 11 a.m. Wednesday (see other story). In a break from MHSA tournament tradition, the tourney will be played over four days, with the loser-out games normally played Saturday morning being played on Friday instead.

Bringing their best to the court when it was needed the most in Eureka, the Hawks started slow but finished fast, winning three straight games in two days to earn third place in the division and the long-coveted trip to the State B.

Improving their season record to 15-4 along the way, coach Jake Mickelson and his Hawks started out the Western B on a chilly note, falling 44-41 to Loyola in the first round Thursday, but warmed to the challenge in the next few days.

After catching fire and racing past Eureka 71-61 Friday, the Hawks played two of their best games of the season Saturday, vanquishing bitter rival Bigfork 58-52 in loser-out action that morning, and finally taking down Mission 60-46 in the Western B consolation later Saturday.

Although the Mission victory was the one that clinched the State B berth, Mickelson felt the win over Bigfork was the key one for the Blue Hawks. The two 7B powers had traded wins on the other team's home court during the regular season and Bigfork had won the No. 1 seed from the district by only a one-point differential.

Round three between the Vikings and the Hawks turned out to be perhaps the best game of the tournament, a fast-paced, back-and-forth contest that finally turned the Hawks' way for good in the fourth quarter. But the fireworks started early.

With the score tied 15-15 early in the second quarter, the Hawks used crisp, quick perimeter passing each time down the floor to free up Nathan Schraeder for three 3-pointers in less than two minutes of game time to take a 24-15 lead, and then found Kade Pardee open for another trey a few minutes later to keep the Hawks ahead at 27-19.

The efficient passing, the way the Hawks were sharing the ball, inspired Mickelson almost beyond words. "I was telling my assistants: 'Passing like that brings tears to my eyes,'" Mickelson said. "We are pretty tough to defend when we move the ball like that."

Still, the Hawks faltered slightly after that and Bigfork surged to a 36-29 lead by midway through the third period, and still led 43-37 heading into the fourth quarter.

With about six and a-half minutes remaining, Pardee fired up the Thompson Falls faithful by dribbling into the heart of the Viking defense and in traffic, throwing down a resounding slam dunk over Bigfork's Isak Epperly, scoring two points and drawing the foul in the process.

Although Pardee missed the foul shot, Hawk Tristan Subatch grabbed the offensive board and, a few seconds later, Schraeder buried another 3-pointer to draw the Hawks within one at 43-42.

After Bigfork converted one of two free throws on the other end to make it 44-42, Schraeder hit yet another trey for the Hawks to put Thompson Falls ahead 45-44, and they would never surrender the lead after that.

Although Bigfork was scoring on their possessions, the Hawks answered each challenge. First, Schraeder dropped a dime on Cody Burk for two points to put the Hawks ahead 47-44. Then Pardee calmly converted a pair of free throws to keep Thompson Falls out front 49-46, followed by another assist from Schraeder to Burk to make it 51-48.

Finally, with the score 51-50, the Hawks put the game away. After Dante Micheli scored on a driving layup, Pardee assisted Burk for another deuce and the score was suddenly 55-50 with only 1:23 left in the game. Schraeder put the finishing touches on the huge win with three of four free throws after that.

Schraeder finished with 18 points to lead the Hawks, Michlei scored 14, Burk 12, Pardee seven, Subatch five and Justin Morgan two.

Walker Fisher led Bigfork with 18 points, Epperly added 13 and Bryce Gilliard 10.

The game with Loyola provided a desultory start to the tournament for the Hawks Thursday. Having not played since February 20 probably did not help. "We all had the layoff so that's not a great excuse," Mickelson said, "but we sure couldn't get anything going against Loyola."

Playing his best basketball of the season last weekend, Burk put down 15 points against Loyola, Schraeder added eight, Micheli six, Subatch and Pardee five each and Morgan two.

Will Burns scored 16 points for Loyola and Raef Konzen 15.

Back on court Friday against the hometown Eureka Lions, the Hawks went off for 30 points in the third quarter to blow open what had been a tight game and move to the win. Again, crisp passing and effective ball movement were the words of the day for the Hawks.

Burk buried 25 more points to pace Thompson Falls, Pardee added 20, Micheli 14, Subatch seven, Schraeder four and Roman Sparks one.

Gavin Bates scored 19 points for Eureka and TJ Carr 18.

The Hawks controlled the action from the opening tip in the consolation game win over Mission. Leading 27-16 at halftime, Thompson Falls outscored Mission 20-10 in the third quarter to take a 47-26 lead into the fourth and cruised in for the win from there.

Micheli and Burk each scored 15 points for the Hawks, Schraeder and Morgan added 11 each, Pardee seven and Sparks one.

Zoran LaFrombois scored 13 points and Kellen McClure 11 for Mission.