Blue Hawks wrap up solid season
The Thompson Falls Blue Hawks did not have the farewell they had hoped for after the weekend’s postseason tournament.
Though they went into the competition positive, it wasn’t enough for them to get the consistency that would have taken them through to the finals.
Both the boys and girls varsity sides headed into the final tournament with high hopes, it would in turn be a fight to not finish on the bottom of the postseason ladder.
The boys by Friday morning had taken the win from Troy with a final score of 68-29. While the Lady Hawks couldn’t hold off a strong Eureka side falling 50-48 at the buzzer which saw the season end for the girls.
The Blue Hawks were able to advance, and set up against Anaconda Saturday morning in loser-out action.
The final score saw the Blue Hawks fall 79-48 by the final buzzer.
A slow start in the first period saw the scoreboard sit 21-6 in favor of Anaconda. Though in the next three periods the Thompson Falls boys attempt to make ground, it would be seen they just ran out of time on the clock.
“The boys didn’t finish where they would have liked to in their last game but they gave it everything they had, we just met a very good opponent,” said head coach Jake Mickelson
“We only had three postseason games, but obviously you look at the game they won as their best postseason showing,” he continued to say.
When asked who his standout players were, Mickelson said, ”We had 11 guys score and that is always a good feeling when you can get that many boys involved.”
“We didn’t feel like we played very well in our first tourney game versus Florence but they rebounded well from that loss to get a win the next morning. The boys continued to stay positive throughout our last game even though we were matched against one of the best teams in the state. They didn’t get down on each other and just kept working their tails off.”
Standout Blue Hawk players were Ryan Schraeder for 2 points, Dylan Beckman for 3 points, Danny Hoisington for 20 points, Grant Lundberg for 7 points, Trey Fisher for 2 points, Kade Pardee for 2 points, Nate Thibeault for 6 points, Jake Long for 4 points.
“I really thought some of our underclassmen stepped up and played a nice tournament. Sometimes it can be pretty intimidating playing in your first divisional tourney but the younger guys showed no fear and I couldn’t have asked for them to perform any better than they did. I had a wonderful time this season being around this group of boys. I will miss our seniors. We will be graduating six seniors from the squad that were all big time contributors. They really are a great group of young men and their best days are ahead of them,” he said.
Head coach for the Lady Blue Hawks wasn’t available for comment.