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Lady Hawk coach Doree Thilmony does not want her team backing down to anyone, and that includes the powerful Three Fork Wolves, who are coming off a third place finish from the State B tourney last year with virtually everyone back from that team.

The Hawks lost to the far-better-than-average Wolves 68-34 in the Three Forks Invitational Friday before coming back to defeat Gardiner 50-17 in the tournament Saturday. Now 1-2 in non-conference play, Thilmony and her Lady Hawks hit the road for a game at Florence Thursday before returning home to entertain Valley Christian Saturday.

Thilmony says she relishes the opportunities to play better teams like Three Forks.

“People were telling me that they were sorry for us having to play Three Forks being as they are so good,” she said. “But I like facing teams like that and was excited for the game. In order to get better we need to play good competition and they have one of the better teams around.”

The Hawks battled the Wolves gamely, outscoring their hosts 14-10 in the second quarter to close within 31-23 at halftime, but Three Forks opened the game up by winning the third quarter 21-7 to take a 52-30 lead into the fourth.

Freshmen Megan Baxter and Jody Detlaff led the Hawks with 10 points each, Maya Stiles added five, and Haley Morgan, Hope Slater and Faith Frields two apiece. Morgan added four steals and three assists, Baxter three blocks and Slater two steals.

Morgan Allen paced Three Forks with 21 points and Shainy Mack scored 14.

The Lady Hawks got their first win of the season against the Gardiner Lady Bruins Saturday, jumping out to a 16-4 lead by the end of the first quarter and cruising in from there.

Baxter bucketed 17 points, pilfered four steals and passed out five assists in that game, Detlaff added 11 points, two steals and two assists, Morgan 10 points, two steals and two assists, Slater seven points and Sarah Detlaff five points and three steals. Stiles had three steals and two assists and Frields a steal.

No information on Gardiner scoring was available.

Thilmony looks forward to this week’s games. “Florence is a solid team, they play a lot in the off season,” she said, “but we will play hard against them and see what happens.”

Like several other teams around western Montana this season, Valley Christian is struggling with participation numbers this season.