Noxon girls, Hot Springs boys win showdown

The Hot Springs Savage Heat took advantage of being on their home court Friday as they welcomed the Noxon Red Devils to town. The junior varsity and varsity boys gave their home crowd wins with the JV winning 54-31 and the varsity 62-30. The varsity then turned around Saturday and beat Seeley-Swan 55-52.

The varsity game against Noxon tipped off with Hot Springs taking a strong 28-7 lead in the first quarter and increasing that to 45-15 in the second. Noxon's Ricky Williams launched the ball into the net for a three-pointer right before the half. Though Hot Springs led the entire game, Noxon was able to decrease the gap a bit in the second half.

The JV squad pulled away from Noxon in the second half, taking their lead to 37-21 at the end of the third before sealing the win in the fourth quarter.

The Savage Heat then played host to Seeley-Swan on Saturday, racking up a second home win, 55-52. Hot Springs didn't take the lead until late in the fourth quarter, when they got up by five points and were able to hold on to that lead in the last minute of the game. "It was a really good win for us," Coach Scott Fredrickson said. "They made some big shots in the fourth and we answered. Eventually we just hung on. I was proud of the kids for that. They kept making plays themselves." He noted that the Savage Heat out-rebounded the Blackhawks 60 to 49 and his Hot Springs boys made 20 of their 30 free throws, whereas Seeley-Swan shot just 11 free throws.

"It was one of those games where it was a good defense and our team had to make plays to win and score off the defense," Fredrickson added.

Against Seeley-Swan, Jack McAllister led with 18 points, nine rebounds, Kyle Lawson led with 10 points, three rebounds and four steals, Garth Parker had eight points and 10 rebounds and Nate Lawhead had seven points, 11 rebounds. Fredrickson noted that Quincy Styles-DePoe and Nick McAllister provided an effective substitution pattern and garnered 10 rebounds between the two of them against Seeley.

Fredrickson noted that his team has been able to keep the number of fouls down. Against Seeley, they had 12 fouls total as a team. He said he's seen improvement over last year and they will continue to try to get better defensively. "It goes back to defense and rebounding win games, and Saturday against Seeley was a perfect example."

It was a thriller Friday evening in Hot Springs as the Lady Savage Heat played host to the Noxon Red Devils. Though Hot Spring led in the beginning of the game, Noxon went home with the 48-46 win.

Hot Springs led by one with the first quarter ending 11-10, but Noxon pulled away the rest of the game, leading 26-15 at the half and 37-27 at the end of the third. Eighth-grader Callie Cano hit a three-pointer for the Red Devils as the third quarter ended. Hot Springs pushed hard in the fourth quarter with Katelyn Christensen hitting three-point shots. On one of those, she was fouled and made two of the three free-throws. It was an aggressive fourth quarter and with two minutes left, Noxon was up 48-39. Despite the run in the fourth, Hot Springs came up short in the cross-county battle. The Lady Savage Heat then played Seeley-Swan on Saturday, falling 65-22.