Blue Hawks face Deer Lodge to open divisional play
Defending state champion Bigfork and Missoula Loyola will have the No. 1 seeds going in the boys’ bracket in the Western B Divisional Basketball Tournament which unfolds Thursday morning at the Ronan Event Center. The tourney runs through Saturday night’s girls’ and boys’ championship games.
Teams need two wins somewhere in the bracket to qualify for the Class B State Tournament March 7-9 at the Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark in Billings. Only the top two teams from each bracket advance to state.
Thompson Falls has the No. 2 seed from the 7B District and faces Powell County-Deer Lodge, the third seed from the 6B District, at 1 p.m. Thursday in first-round action. The winner plays in the semifinals at 7:20 p.m. Friday. T-Falls finished 3-3 in conference games.
Mission, seeded second in the 6B District, tangles with Lincoln County-Eureka in the last game of the first day of the divisional tourney, at 9 p.m.
Thompson Falls and Deer Lodge met once during the regular season, and the Wardens won by 11 points in the Jan. 12 contest.
“They have one really good player. We have to limit him to make his night tough. They’re a senior-laden group,” Blue Hawks head coach Jake Mickelson said. “We have to rebound well because they’re bigger and stronger than us.”
THE BLUE HAWKS got a final tune-up for the divisional tournament with a Senior Night game against Bigfork last Saturday night.
The Blue Hawks started strong, leading 15-8 after one period, but were outscored 20-9 in the second quarter — trailing 28-24 at halftime. T-Falls held the Viking to nine points in the third, but managed to score just three points.
“We went toe-to-toe with the heavyweight for three quarters,” Mickelson said. “We missed some layups and made some mental errors and we lost contact with them.”
Turnovers were a detriment to the Blue Hawks, who gave the ball away 33 times.
“I’m super proud of the boys. They battled hard, they didn’t back down from Bigfork,” Mickelson said. “That left them a little more hungry if they can sustain that for our quarters.”
T-FALLS SHOT a decent 47 percent from 2-point range and wa 4-for-11 on 3-pointers for 43 percent overall.
“Bigfork plays good defense. We weren’t forcing up bad shots, but we got a little tired. The physical grind got to them,” Mickelson said. “Our guys weren’t quite as active offensively as we were in the first half.”
Statistics showed that the Blue Hawks got only one offensive rebound in the game, and 25 on the defensive end.
“They’re just athletic and pretty strong,” Mickelson admitted. “That’s a big thing down inside. They’re brutes.”
Ryan Schraeder led T-Falls with 10 points. Grant Lundberg had nine points, 11 rebound and five assists before fouling out.
T-Falls’ trio of seniors were recognized before the varsity game, as Lundberg, Riley Riffle and Brian Henry played the final home game of their high school careers.