Thompson Falls boys continue on
THOMPSON FALLS - The Bluehawks hit the road and headed down to the District tournament where they came head-to-head with the Troy Trojans.
In a very close game, Thompson Falls kept up with Troy losing in the last six seconds after being held up in a 45 to 45 tie at the end of the fourth quarter.
Head coach Chadd Laws said the last shot by Troy was not why they lost the game.
“Halfway through the third quarter and into the mid part of the fourth quarter, we were not rebounding defensively as we should have been. We were still missing the inside presence of Derek Whittenburg,” explained Coach Laws. Whittenburg was unable to play during the game because of a concussion he obtained earlier in the season.
“We took some ill-advised shots in the last minute and a half. Those were just learning items that we need to understand better,” said Coach Laws.
Baptiste Seynaeve led the team with 14 points while Tanner Laws shouldered ten. Trais Hoisington brought in eight points and Dominique Holt had six. Caleb Bates brought in another three points while Ross Dalby and Tyler Bates had two apiece.
After losing 45 to 48, the Bluehawks went on to beat Eureka in the consolation game, stretching the game into overtime and winning 65 to 59.
Thompson Falls beat Eureka two times earlier in the season and Coach Laws pointed out their success to a handful of players.
“I thought our post play was very good, mainly from Baptiste and defensively I thought we had three standout defenders; Tanner Laws, Dominique Holt and Ross Dalby,” said Coach Laws.
“I thought Eureka had been playing well at the end of the year and into the tournament. We knew it would be a good test,” stated Coach Laws.
The Bluehawks will play Loyola in Kalispell on Thursday at 1 p.m.
“It’s tournament time and we always expect to win. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, if you don’t have the expectation to win, you’re selling your game short,” said Coach Laws. “We have a good game plan and if we carry through than I think we have a very good chance.”
Laws explained that Loyola has two tremendous scorers – Josh Jansan and JJ Anderson.
“They are really good guards and they both have been scoring about 18 points a game. We definitely want to put some pressure on those two and the other thing is that we have to stop their sideline break,” said Coach Laws.
Win or lose, the Bluehawks will play another match on Friday during the tournament. If all goes well they will stay out of the consolation bracket and keep improving their standings.