Hawk boys win in overtime

The Blue Hawks traveled last Tuesday to face the Eureka Lions. While the girls had a blow-out game of 75-32, the boys faced a formidable adversary. The Lions had beat Thompson Falls the last home game but this time the victory went to the Blue Hawk boys, 61-57.

It was a tight match at every turn in the boys game. The Lions were up 12-10 in the first quarter and 26-23 at the half. By the end of the third it was the Lions with 41 and the Blue Hawks with 40. At 3:08 on the clock Thompson Falls was in the lead by six points. With 49 seconds left on the clock the score was 51-51 and with 13.5 seconds left, the score was 53-53 and into overtime.

Bryson LeCoure made a three-pointer to start off the battle. At the two minute mark the score was 58-54, Thompson Falls in the lead and the Blue Hawks went on to steal the win by four points. “We felt great after the win that our efforts are starting to pay off, but also are starting to gather some momentum and confidence in our preparation for the postseason tournaments,” said Coach Jake Mickelson.

Jesse Claridge scored 18 points and rebounded eight. LeCoure hooped 15 points, rebounded six and achieved three assists, Breck Ferris shot eight points and made one rebound, Nick Tessier racked up six points and made two assists, Ben Cooper hooped six points and grabbed five rebounds, Braxton Dorscher scored five points and rebounded two, Jacob Britt hooped two points, rebounded four and made five assists and Kaiden Robins got one point. The Blue Hawks made 50% of their free-throws and 53.8% of their two-point attempts.

The Blue Hawks might get a chance to meet up with the Lions again at Districts.

For the Lady Blue Hawks, it was more than a win. “They have good team chemistry and it showed that night; they shot the lights out,” said Coach Mike Tessier. Ellie Baxter was honored for scoring 1,000 points in her high school career. They stopped the game to applaud her and she was given the game ball at the end of the game.

The team kept a good hold on the ball, achieved a remarkable 23 assists and shot 54% from the floor. Baxter scored 26 points and rebounded ten, Chesney Lowe hooped 23 points, Natalie Roberts racked up ten points and Gabi Hannum shot nine points and rebounded eight and Delainey Gerhard grabbed seven rebounds.

The game against Loyola on Saturday in Missoula deemed to be a tough match-up for the Blue Hawk boys and only one basket short for the girls. The Blue Hawk boys got beat by a landslide of 76-29 and the Lady Hawks lost 44-42.

Tessier said that the girls dug themselves a hole in the first quarter and battled hard the rest of the game, not letting up. It was 14-5 Loyola in the lead in the first quarter and in the second quarter the Lady Hawks tied points with 11 each. The Lady Hawks won the last half of the game but it wasn’t enough for the win. Tessier said that as a team they didn’t have a lot of turnovers. Baxter scored 16 points and rebounded ten, Hannum made six rebounds and Burgess grabbed six as well.

In the Blue Hawk boys game Loyola won by a landslide 76-29. The team did the best in the third quarter, racking up 12 points to Loyola’s 14. “We had some mental errors that allowed Loyola to build a big lead and also a lot of credit goes to them, a very talented basketball team, " said Mickelson.

Claridge scored 12 points, rebounded five and achieved three assists, LeCoure hooped five points, rebounded five and made two assists, Ferris shot four points, Sam Burgess got three points, three rebounds and three assists, and Tessier aided the team with two points and one rebound.

“We would look forward to the challenge of meeting them again to see how much we can close the gap after seeing some positive things on tape,” added Mickelson.

The Blue Hawks will be playing Bigfork on Thursday and have a good match-up against Mission at home on Friday. Senior night is this Saturday and a game against class-C Seeley-Swan.