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The Thompson Falls Blue Hawk boys ended years of hoop frustration against the Florence Falcons by knocking off those Bitterroot ballers 66-57 in Thompson Falls Friday.

The significance of the win was underscored Saturday after Florence went into Missoula and knocked off Western B heavyweight Loyola after losing to the Hawks. What's more, it is believed to be the first time the Thompson Falls boys have defeated Florence since at least 2008.

"Our guys didn't know that it had been that long since we had beaten Florence," coach Jake Mickelson said. "That is a couple of generations of teams here that had not won a game from them. This was a very nice one for us to get."

In other action last week, the Hawks clobbered Class C Valley Christian 70-43 Saturday, also in Thompson Falls, in a non-conference clash and are now 2-3 overall heading into the last week of play in 2017. The Hawks were to have played the rival Plains Horsemen in Plains Tuesday (results of that game were not available) and will travel to Troy Friday.

The game at Troy will be the first District 7B conference game of the season for the Hawks.

The game with Florence turned the Hawks' way in the second quarter when Thompson Falls outscored the Falcons 21-7 to take a 32-23 lead into halftime. The Hawks maintained the advantage through the third quarter and most of the way through the fourth, and then held off a Florence rally in the final minutes to pull out the win.

"We found a little niche, something we can do on defense to give people problems," Mickelson said. "I felt like we were in control the whole way but that we could have finished better. We like to think that we can clean that kind of stuff up some in the next few weeks."

Danny Hoisington had a monster game in leading the Hawks to the win, throwing down 31 points (on 14 of 20 shooting from the floor) and spearing 12 rebounds. Nate Thibeault added 16 points, Dylan Beckman eight, Payton Frields five, Michael Johnson and Alex Erosa two each and Grant Lundberg one.

Frields added five rebounds and three assists, Beckman passed out six assists and grabbed two steals, Thibeault had three more steals and Hoisington two.

The Hawks shot 49% from the field, including 62.5% from two-point range in the win.

John Hamilton

PAYTON'S PACE - Falls senior Payton Frields drives the ball up the floor on a fast break opportunity at TFHS last weekend. Hawks and Lady Hawks play at Troy Friday.

Marcus Zeiler scored 30 points to pace Florence, which went on to defeat Loyola 58-54 Saturday, and Brent Stroppel added 13.

The game with Valley went the Hawks' way right from the start as Thompson Falls led 21-13 after one quarter and 46-17 by halftime, and Mickelson went to his bench early and often.

Lundberg led the Hawks to the win with 17 points (including a slam dunk in the late going) and seven rebounds, Thibeault and Hoisington added 15 points apiece, Frields eight, Beckman seven, Johnson four and Erosa two.

Beckman also had seven assists and three steals, Frields a team-high five steals and seven boards, and Johnson four rebounds.

Kade Pardee came up with three steals and Ryan Schraeder passed out three assists and grabbed six rebounds.

Caleb Colwell led Valley Christian with 14 points and Casey Reimer added 12.