Hawks storm Plains in winter battle

The Hawks were flying high at Plains Thursday night as they trounced the Horsemen and Trotters in their own home corral.

The Horsemen junior varsity boys claimed a 30-27 victory in overtime, but that was the only win for Plains. The Lady Hawks JV team defeated the Trotters 45-21. The varsity Lady Hawks claimed a 47-35 win over the Trotters and the Horsemen lost to the Blue Hawks 55-46.

Horsemen head coach Brooks Sanford had eight wins with only one loss. He saw no reason why his girls couldn't chalk up another win and with only four seconds into the game sophomore Katelyn Subatch scored two points. Unfortunately for the Trotters, Thompson Falls came right back with two three-pointers and with nine seconds on the first quarter clock, sophomore Delainy Gerhard scored for the Lady Hawks to take a 15-8 lead.

Thompson Falls kept up the pressure from the very start of the second quarter with a basket by junior Addi Pardee, followed immediately with teammate sophomore Solveig Nygaard getting a two-pointer, adding a free throw point for a 20-11 lead. With 12 seconds in the first half, freshman Aubrey Baxter hit the mark to put the Lady Hawks 14 points ahead.

The Lady Hawks drew first blood in the third and kept on hitting their mark, but Plains didn't give up and Subatch sank two in a row with less than two minutes in the third, which finished with the Hawks ahead 35-27.

Sophomore Gabi Hannum of Thompson Falls started out the fourth with a basket, but senior Blakely Lakko came right back to give Plains only a six-point deficit. The Trotters picked up eight points in the fourth, but the Lady Hawks got 12 more for the win.

For the Lady Hawks, Nygaard led the team with 15 points, followed by Addy Deal with 11. Hannum had nine, Addi Pardee and Gerhard collected four apiece, Olivia Fitchet three, and Aubrey Baxter one.

"Plains did a good job playing us tough inside the paint. They've got some size that gave us a little trouble with our inside game," said Lady Hawks head coach Mike Tessier, who felt his girls played well. "We are a good defensive team. When it came time to really get some defensive stops, we were able to do it. Our pressure defense definitely caused some Plains turnovers, some we were able to capitalize on. We were able to keep Plains from getting into a good rhythm offensively," he said. Tessier said his team needs to work on finding good shots and building confidence in their shooting ability. "We're a very young team, I'm confident that the shooting confidence will come over time," he added.

Hannum led the Lady Hawks in rebounds with nine, followed by Deal and Annalise Fairbank with five apiece. Pardee had the most assists with four. She also had four steals. Nygaard had five steals and three assists.

Subatch led the Trotters with a dozen points, followed by Lakko with eight and Deming with six, Aubree Butcher with four, Trystan Larsen with three, and Ava Lawyer and Claire Lakko with two apiece.

"I think our girls showed some determination and fought back from an early deficit. I think we gained some confidence as a team and realized we can compete at a high level despite being very young and lacking experience," said Sanford. He added that Thompson Falls has a nice team and are well coached and fundamentally sound. "I think we competed with them and we look forward to playing them again," he said.

The Plains Horsemen started out strong in the conference game with senior Anaya Loberg striking twice right away and in minutes the score was 13-4 with the Horsemen in the lead. With .1 second on the first quarter clock, Horseman Zayden Allen, a junior, was fouled and successfully got his free throws for a 15-11 Plains lead.

Blue Hawk Braxton Dorscher, a senior, scored first in the second quarter with one of two foul shots. Dorscher soon scored again to tie the game 16-16. Loberg and junior Shawn O'Keefe scored to put Plains in the lead, but the Blue Hawks came right back with seniors Nick Tessier and Max Hannum scoring to tie the game again. With just over two minutes in the quarter, junior Pablo Hernandez, a foreign exchange student from Spain, nabbed an almost half-court three-pointer. At halftime, Plains had a 27-22 lead.

Junior Bryson LeCoure of Thompson Falls started things out in the third with a layup, but Loberg returned fire with a three-pointer. With almost three minutes in the third, LeCoure hit for three and the lead for the first time in the game. Soon, Blue Hawk junior Kaiden Robins nailed a three-point shot, followed by teammate Sam Burgess, also a junior, with a two-pointer for a 43-39 Thompson lead at the end of the third.

Senior Aden West of Plains struck first in the fourth from the foul line, but LeCoure hit again for two. Then, from under the basket, Dorscher scored, followed within a minute by Tessier for a 10-point lead.

Horseman Darren Standeford nabbed one, but Burgess got another three. Less than two minutes remained on the clock when Allen got one of two free throws to put the score at 54-44 and with 36.5 seconds left, O'Keefe hit both his foul shots, ending the game 55-46.

LeCoure led his team with 17 points, six rebounds, two assists, and one steal. Tessier chalked up a dozen points, along with six rebounds and two assists. Burgess had eight points, seven rebounds, nine assists, and five steals. Hannum had seven rebounds and four points.

Head coach Jake Mickelson felt it was a great team win. "The defense was consistent throughout and our offense came alive in the second half. I think just the confidence of seeing the ball go through the net really helped propel us through the second half for the victory," said Mickelson, the coach for nine seasons. "I'm proud of our effort and we will need to bring that night in and night out to find success throughout the rest of the season," he said, adding that he was impressed with the Horsemen.

The scoring leader for Plains was Loberg with 13 points. Hernandez and Allen had 10 points apiece. Allen also led the team in rebounds with five. Standeford led the Horsemen in steals and assists with five apiece.

"I felt like we started strong and played real well for the first half," said Horsemen head coach Tyrel Allen. "The second half we started to look tired and didn't guard the perimeter near as well. To be competitive with a physical team like Thompson Falls, we need to block out, which we did not do. We let them have too many extra opportunities," said Allen.

For the JV Trotters, Taryn Meredith led in scoring with eight points, followed by Randie Kilgore and Jaycee Carr with four apiece. Ashley Ferlan and Marina Tulloch had two apiece. The high scorers for the JV Horsemen were Joe Martin and Cooper Meredith with eight points apiece.