The Savage Heat boys hit a couple of bumps in the District 14C road and lost hard-fought conference games to St. Regis in Hot Springs Thursday and to Charlo in Charlo Friday.

The 61-57 loss to Charlo sticks in coach Scott Fredrickson’s mind the most.

“We’re still smarting a little from the Charlo game,” he said. “We were up by five points with about three minutes left but Charlo ended up coming back to win.

“We had a chance to pull the ball out and run some clock but waited too long,” he added, “and they were able to take advantage.”

Charlo came back from a 40-37 deficit entering the fourth quarter by outscoring the Heat 24-17 in the final eight minutes.

The prolific Brandon Knudsen led Hot Springs scoring in Charlo with 22 points, Nathan Lawhead added 10, Jack McAllister nine, and Kyle Lawson and Luke Waterbury eight apiece.

Nate Clark led a balanced Viking scoring attack with 14 points, Phil Marquez added 11 and Coyle Nagy 10.

Fredrickson said the St. Regis Tigers were able to impose their will on Thursday’s game in St. Regis with their pressure defense.

“They are a good team, athletic and aggressive,” he said. “Their pressure caused a lot of turnovers, especially in the second quarter when it kind of got away from us.”

St. Regis outscored the Heat 29-14 in the second quarter on the way to the 68-51 win.

Knudsen bucketed 17 points to pace Hot Springs, Lawson added 15, McAllister 11, Lawhead four and Waterbury and Lincoln Slonaker two apiece.

Andrew Sanford canned 26 points to lead St. Regis, Caleb Ball scored 15 and Nick Day 14.

Fredrickson said he did note progress made in two areas last week by his Heat. “We are doing better handling the ball, we are not turning it over as much,” he said. “And our zone offense was much improved last week.”

The Heat have two games scheduled this week, in Pablo against Two Eagle River in a 14C contest Thursday and in Hot Springs versus Troy in non-conference action Friday.