Savage Heat on a winning road tour

The Hot Springs Savage Heat are on a roll heading into tournament time. The boys snagged three wins on the road last week, beating Noxon Wednesday, Charlo on Friday and Two Eagle River on Saturday.

In the game at Noxon, Hot Springs got up 39-20 at halftime and kept their lead throughout the second half, winning 69-38. Wyatt Lackner led Noxon with 13 points, Ricky Williams had nine, Derrick Christensen eight and Gunnar Swanson four. For Hot Springs, Kyle Lawson led with 17 points, Kyle Lawson had 16, Quincy Styles-DePoe 14, Garth Parker 10, Michael Marrinan seven, Nick McAllister and Vania Afonin two each and Jody Page one.

The Savage Heat then traveled to Two Eagle River and won 78-50. Parker led the Savage Heat in that win with 30 points and 14 rebounds, Nate Lawhead had 15 and McAllister 14. "Inside the guys have been scoring a lot," said Hot Springs Coach Scott Fredrickson. "We have players getting a lot of assists. They are a dangerous team but we outscored them every quarter and gradually got a bigger and bigger lead."

Next up for Hot Springs was Charlo, who beat the Savage Heat earlier in the season. Hot Springs was able to come away with a 72-63 win, which Fredricksonsaid is the first victory for the Savage Heat in Charlo in at least the last five years. "They've always been a close competitor, but Charlo is hard to beat on their home court. It was a battle." Hot Springs led at both the end of the first and second quarters before Charlo took the lead in the third. The Savage Heat outscored the Vikings 26-18 in the fourth quarter and Hot Springs made 17 of 20 free throws just in the fourth quarter, with McAllister sinking all 10 of his at the line in the final quarter. McAllister led the team in Charlo with 22 points, Parker had 17, senior Lawson 13, Lawhead 10, Styles-DePoe six and Marrinan four points.

The Savage Heat were set to go to play Plains at home on Tuesday in what was Hot Springs' senior night. They then will travel to Seeley-Swan on Saturday for their final game of the regular season. They then will head to the District 14-C tournament in Ronan. "Our kids are playing hard. We'll be ready for the tournament," Fredrickson added.

The Hot Springs girls split their games last week, beating Noxon 51-27 on Wednesday, then losing to Charlo 54-31 on the road Saturday. Against Noxon, Hot Springs took an early lead and kept the momentum goin all four quarters. The Savage Heat were leading 28-8 at the half and increased that lead to 46-19 after the third quarter. The Savage Heat led 10-7 after the first quarter and outscored the Vikings in the fourth, but were unable to keep the lead. Hot Springs now sits 3-6 in the District 14-C conference and 5-8 overall. Hot Springs celebrated senior night with a game against Plains on Tuesday. Results of that game were not available at press time.

Noxon will finish out their regular season this week, hosting Two Eagle River on Thursday.