Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

RONAN – Nobody said that playing in the Western B divisional tournament would be easy.

And it wasn't easy, at least not for the Thompson Falls Blue Hawk boys. Coach Jake Mickelson and his Hawks lost 50-32 to Deer Lodge in the first round Thursday and were then eliminated from the tourney 61-41 by Florence Friday morning.

The defending State B and regular season District 7B champion Bigfork Vikings won the Western B divisional tournament crown, defeating Loyola 53-43 in the title game Saturday night. A challenge game for the division's second entry into the State B tournament at Belgrade in two weeks between Mission and Loyola was to have been played Tuesday after being postponed Monday due to inclement weather. Results of that game were not available at press time.

The Hawks stayed close with Deer Lodge in the first half Thursday before the Wardens finally broke open the game by outscoring Thompson Falls 35-19 in the final 16 minutes.

"We stayed close in the first half, it was basically a stalemate," Mickelson said. "We were getting good looks, we just couldn't get anything to fall or it could have been a slightly different game."

Grant Lundberg led the Hawks against the Wardens with 11 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocked shots, Riley Riffle added 10 points and five boards, Brian Henry six points and two rebounds, Nathan Schraeder three points and Ryan Schraeder two points, three rebounds and two assists. Trey Fisher cleared six rebounds, including four on the offensive end.

Dyllon McDermid scored 16 points for Deer Lodge, Greydon Nicholson added nine and Ben Anderson eight.

Thompson Falls fell behind by a big amount early in the game with Florence, trailing 21-5 by the time the first quarter ended, and could never recover in that loser-out contest Friday.

Lundberg counted 14 points and nine rebounds to lead Thompson Falls, Ryan Schraeder scored six points and pulled down four rebounds, Cody Burk added five points and four boards, Nathan Schraeder five points and three rebounds, Henry and Nate Wilhite four points each, Riffle two and Fisher one.

Brendan Bailey scored 18 points to lead Florence and JP Briney added 13.

Mickelson said the Hawks' season was a trying one at times, but that he saw a lot of growth from his players as the season progressed.

"We had some turbulence with the season, it was definitely a learning experience," he said, acknowledging a spate of suspensions and eligibility issues that affected the team recently. "But I can't fault the kids, they all had great attitudes and competed every night."

He said the payoff could come in the next few seasons. "We got a lot of kids a lot of varsity experience this year," he added, "and that should pay off for us in the future."