Blue Hawks falter against Bigfork, Mission

When you are getting ready for a conference tournament its always good to know how the boys on top are doing.

The Thompson Falls Blue Hawks boys basketball team found out this past weekend the top two seeds in the upcoming Western 7B District tournament are doing just fine.

Thursday the Blue Hawks traveled to St. Ignatius to take on the top-seeded Mission Bulldogs and were blasted by the host team 71-35. T-Falls followed that up with a game Saturday night against the No. 2 Bigfork Valkyries and fell 59-43.

Needless-to-say the Blue Hawks will have their work cut out for them if they hope to reach the Divisional playoff round two weekends from now.

Saturday night the Valkyries used a balanced scoring attack to subdue the visiting Blue Hawks and clinch the number two seed behind Mission.

Bigfork got out to a 15-9 lead at the end of the first quarter and made it 30-19 by the end of the first half.

The Valkyries got scoring contributions from eight of the members of their roster in handling Thompson Falls. The win boosted Bigfork to 10-7 overall, and a lofty 9-1 Western 7B record. The Blue Hawks fell to 5-5 in the conference and 10-8 for the year with the defeat.

The two teams battled evenly during the third quarter before Bigfork outscored T Falls 13-8 in the final quarter to seal the win.

Things didn’t get any easier for the Blue Hawks Thursday night, when they took on top-seed Mission in a game played in St. Ignatius.

Mission’s Zoran Frombois led a balanced Bulldogs scoring attack and in so doing was the game’s leading scorer with 25 points in the win over T Falls.

Thompson Falls got 12 from Nathan Schraeder, leading scorer for the Blue Hawks.

Mission rolled to a 22-13 lead at the end of the opening quarter, then added 10 to that lead in quarter number two to take a 27-18 halftime lead.

The Bulldogs outscored the Blue Hawks by 17 points in the second half as they cruised to their eighth conference win of the year and up their season mark to 14-2.

The Western 7B tournament begins this Thursday in Pablo.