Hawks advance to divisionals

The Blue Hawk boys and girls stood their ground at the District Tournament in Eureka last weekend, and will be moving on to showcase their talents in Anaconda this weekend for the Western B Divisionals. The Blue Hawk girls took second at District, while the boys finished in fourth place.

The post-season games began last Tuesday as the Blue Hawk boys hosted the Troy Trojans. The Blue Hawks claimed a victory of 76-40. They came out fierce from the onset, up 19-2 in the first quarter, and never let up. The Hawks achieved a total of 21 assists,15 steals and 35 rebounds to Troy's 23 rebounds and boasted a 52.9% from the free-throw line.

Bryson LeCoure was the leading scorer with 20 points. Cael Thilmony shot 11 points, Nick Tessier hooped nine, Alex Menzel racked up eight points, Jacob Britt and Braxton Dorscher scored seven points and Breck Ferris shot five points and grabbed nine rebounds. Sam Burgess and Bryson LeCoure made five assists.

Friday afternoon in Eureka the Blue Hawks played hard against Bigfork, losing 48-33. Britt scored the first points for the Hawks and LeCoure hooped a three-pointer to end the quarter at 13-5. Then in the second quarter the Hawks were basket to basket with the Vikings, tying for points and ending 23-15 for the half.

Jesse Claridge started the third quarter off and Tessier drove the ball down the court for a nice lay-up to end the quarter with Bigork 41 and Thompson Falls 27. Both teams had a tough time getting past each other to make a basket in the fourth.

"Our boys came out ready to play. They battled hard for four quarters and made Bigfork work for everything they got," said Coach Jake Mickelson.

The team made 71.4% from the free-throw line and rebounded 20 to Bigfork's 26. LeCoure shot nine points, Britt hooped five and had five assists, Claridge and Cooper sank four points apiece and Ferris rebounded four.

"If we had been a little more successful offensively we would have had a great chance to come out on top. Regardless, the boys gained some valuable confidence from that game and are learning to compete at a higher level with each game, which is awesome to see this time of year," said Mickelson.

The Lady Hawks came out with full force for Friday night's game against Mission. Mission had beat them by one point the last game but the Hawks controlled the temperature of this game, said Coach Mike Tessier, and won 53-34. "It was the best game of the season and they played hard," said Tessier.

They were up 15-11 the first quarter and then a basket by Ellie Baxter started off the second quarter, where they bolted ahead 27-14 by the half. In the third quarter Chesney Lowe made the first drive and lay-up for what was a series of aggressive driving from the floor. Tessier said that because of their aggressive offensive they were able to get 25 shots from the free-throw line and made 50% of those.

Baxter landed a hard three-point basket at the end of the third quarter, hooped 16 points, rebounded 13, stole five and made four assists. Avery Burgess shot 12 points and rebounded 13, Gabi Hannum, who has been solid all year said Tessier, scored seven points, rebounded eight and stole five. Solveig Nygaard, coming in from the bench, made her mark with 4/4 of her free-throws and grabbed three steals.

Tessier said that he was proud of his defense from keeping the top scorers from Mission, Kooper and Kason Page, to only nine points total.

The Thompson Falls boys placed fourth in the tournament, losing to the Mission Bulldogs 56-48, in an exciting neck in neck battle, at Saturday afternoons consolation game. The Blue Hawks spearheaded the first quarter until the very end with Mission making the last basket to lead 12-11.

LeCoure made a three-point shot to gain the lead 20-19 in the second quarter and then it was like a swift fencing match with the Hawks up in the half 28-27. The Bulldogs gained a six point edge after the third, 44-38, but that didn't last long. Britt made the first shot from the floor and then Claridge sank one in. Ferris made 2/2 free-throws and LeCoure and Claridge each made a free-throw and then LeCoure made a two-point shot to tie the game 48-48 with 2:07 left on the clock. Then it was the Bulldogs who spearheaded the end of the quarter for the win.

LeCoure racked up 19 points, Claridge hooped nine and Cooper scored eight points.

The Lady Hawks finished off the last game of the night losing to Bigfork, 51-12, in the championship game.

Thompson Falls brought home the second place plaque. "I'm happy with how the weekend went and proud of getting second place," said Tessier. He said that they are focused on the game against Florence in Anaconda and that this weekend or possibly State is his seniors last run at their highschool basketball career.

The Lady Hawks will be taking on Florence at 9:45 a.m. on Thursday and the Blue Hawks will be playing Loyola Thursday at 11:30 a.m. at the Western B Divisionals in Anaconda.