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After catching the State B champs on the rebound, the Hawk boys almost rebounded with their biggest win of the season.

Coach Jake Mickelson and his Blue Hawks, two nights after catching Bigfork on the rebound and falling 63-31 on the road to the defending State B champions, went out and put the fear of the law into the Deer Lodge Wardens, losing only 48-36 in Thompson Falls Saturday.

The reason that result is significant is that Deer Lodge had upset Bigfork only a week earlier, breaking a Bigfork winning streak that stretched back all the way into the 2016-17 season. The fact that the Hawks went toe-to-toe with a quality team like Deer Lodge encourages Mickelson.

"Obviously, our performance against Deer Lodge is something to build on," he said. "We played right with them through most of the game. We could be scary to other teams if we start shooting the ball a little better."

To Mickelson's point about shooting better, the Hawks connected on only 32% of their shots from two-point range, only 19% from three-point land and 45% from the free throw line against Deer Lodge. Yet they were still very much in the game right until the end.

"We would like to have won of course," Mickelson said, "but we feel pretty good about how we played."

Still getting his feet wet in varsity action after playing most JV earlier this season, Jaden Isaac scored 13 points, blocked two shots and came up with two steals. Kade Pardee added 11 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals, Ryan Schraeder scored five points and ripped off six steals, Grant Lundberg three points, five rebounds and three blocked shots, Nathan Schraeder two points and seven rebounds and Ethan Brown one point.

Dyllon McDermid scored 24 points to lead Deer Lodge, which rose to No. 5 in the most recent Class B rankings after their stunning win over Bigfork, which is still rated No. 1 in spite of the loss. Ben Anderson added six points for the Wardens and Dalton Pauley and Ozzie King five apiece.

The Hawks had a much rougher time in Bigfork as the Vikings came out red-hot after that loss to Deer Lodge, outscoring the Hawks 24-7 in the first quarter and never looking back.

Lundberg scored 17 points, grabbed four rebounds and blocked three shots to lead the Hawks, Ryan Schraeder added five points and two assists, Isaac three points, and Nathan Schraeder, Brown and Cody Burk two points apiece.

Nathan Schraeder, Nate Wilhite and Pardee had two steals apiece.

Logan Gilliard poured in 29 points to lead Bigfork and Clayton Reichenbach added 11.

The Hawks have two non-conference games this week, at Noxon Tuesday (results were not available) and at Superior against the Superior-Alberton co-op Clark Fork Friday.