Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

The Lady Hawks could have ended up first, second or third.

Taking control of their own hoop destinies with another inspired effort, the Lady Hawks decided to finish first, dumping the Bigfork Vals 50-41 on their home court in Bigfork Saturday.

Completing play with a 14-4 overall record, coach Chadd Laws’ Hawks forged a three-way tie for first in final league standings with the win as they, Bigfork and Eureka all finished with 6-2 league records.

As one of the district’s tri-champions, the Hawks were awarded the top seed into this week’s District 7B tournament based on a coin flip process used to determine the seeding order in just such an instance before the season began.

As the No. 1 seed, the Lady Hawks will host the winner of a play-in game between Mission and Troy Friday at 7 p.m. in Thompson Falls. Mission was set to host Troy in that play-in game Tuesday, but results were not available at press time.

Bigfork will host Eureka in the other 7B semifinal Friday.

With spots in the Western B divisional tournament secured for all four remaining teams, the 7B consolation and championship games will be played on a neutral court in Libby Saturday.

“The girls have played hard and smart all season, and earning the top seed in the tournament is just their latest accomplishment,” Laws said. “We are excited for the district tourney and look forward to seeing how we do this week.”

The Lady Hawks did very well last week, also defeating Mission 64-49 in Mission Thursday, in spite of the fact that starting forward senior Belle Cooper missed both games due to illness.

Laws said Cooper was back in school looking much better early this week.

The Lady Hawks won the battle of the boards in beating back Bigfork Saturday, pulling down 21 offensive rebounds and 22 defensive caroms as opposed to 10 and 11 by Bigfork, Laws noted.

The Lady Hawks’ towers of power underneath, Megan Baxter and Jody Detlaff led Thompson Falls to the win with 22 and 13 points each, respectively. Detlaff wound up with a whopping total of 19 rebounds and Baxter gathered in another 14.

Freshman point guard Ellie Baxter added eight points and two assists, Riley Wilson three points and five assists and Faith Frields four points.

At Mission Thursday, Megan Baxter was good for a 20-20 effort and then some in 2020, scoring a team-high 20 points while also pulling down 21 rebounds, passing out five assists, blocking six shots and coming up with four steals. Named western Montana player of the week two weeks ago, Baxter clearly had the numbers to win that honor again last week.

Detlaff added 15 points and nine rebounds, Ellie Baxter nine points, Frields and Wilson eight points each, and Elli Pardee four.

Azia Humphrey scored 15 points for Mission and Syd Brander 13.