Thompson Falls teams move on to divisionals

In a tournament won by the overwhelming favorites, Thompson Falls still managed to send both its girls and boys team to the Divisional tournament this weekend in Anaconda.

The top four teams from the 7B tournament, the last two rounds of which were held in Eureka, qualified for the trip to Anaconda, leaving Plains and Troy as the only two schools not to move on from the six team 7B field.

Thompson Falls girls, the number two seed in the tournament, had a bye in the first round before beating St. Ignatius, the three seed, 40-22 last Friday in Eureka. The win sent the Lady Hawks to the championship game against top-ranked and unbeaten Bigfork, which beat T Falls for the third time this year, 51-12.

Despite the loss to the Valkyries, Thompson Falls advances to the Divisional tournament this weekend as the District’s second seed.

Thompson Falls opened their portion of the tournament Friday night with a convincing 40-22 semi-final win over the Lady Bulldogs. The last time the two teams played, February 10 in a conference game, St. Ignatius upset the Lady Hawks 54-53.

This time around Thompson Falls was ready for the Lady Bulldogs as they scratched out a 15-11 lead after the first eight minutes of play. T Falls then outscored St. Ignatius 12-3 in the second period to take a 27-14 halftime lead.

The Lady Hawks added five more points to their lead in the third quarter before both teams put up zero points in the final eight minutes of the game.

That win clinched Thompson Falls girls trip to Anaconda.

Saturday night in the 7B championship game they faced unbeaten Bigfork, which roared out to a 16-5 first quarter lead, then more than doubled that lead, outscoring the Lady Hawks 14-2 in quarter number two to take a 30-7 halftime lead.

Bigfork continued to pad their lead in the second half, outscoring the Lady Hawks 21-5 and coasting to the championship victory.

Braedon Gunlock scored a team and game high 13 points to lead the Valkyries to the win and boost their season mark to 20-0. Thompson Falls fell to 13-5 with the loss.

Thompson Falls senior standout Avery Burgess topped the Hawks with five points.

The Blue Hawks boys team went two and two in the double elimination tourney, opening their week with a home court, first round win over Troy, 76-40.

They closed out the tourney with a consolation final loss to St. Ignatius 56-48.

Against the Bulldogs from St. Ignatius, the two teams traded baskets and the lead throughout the first half. After holding a one-point first-quarter lead, T Falls maintained their a one-point, 28-27 halftime advantage.

However, St. Ignatius quickly erased that deficit in the third quarter and built a 44-38 lead heading into the final eight minutes of play. The Bulldogs added two points to the lead in the fourth quarter to secure the District’s three seed in the Anaconda tourney.

St. Ignatius’ high scoring guard Zoran LaFrombois scored 19 points to pace the Bulldogs.

Thompson Falls also got 19 points from Bryson LeCoure. T Falls finished the District tournament with an 11-10 season record as they head to Anaconda. St. Ignatius now stands at 12-9 on the season.

The Blue Hawks opened their tournament with a Tuesday night home game versus Troy and rolled past the outgunned Trojans 76-40. The Hawks opened a 19-2 first quarter lead and never trailed the rest of the way. By halftime the lead had grown to 38-16, then 56-27 at the end of the third quarter.

LeCoure was four for six from in three points for a game best 20 points. Cael Thilmony pitched in 11 for the Hawks.

The win over Troy sent the Blue Hawks into a semi-final match-up with Bigfork, which finished the regular conference season with an unblemished 11-0 record, including two wins over T Falls earlier this year.

Bigfork’s tall and talented front line helped them take a 13-5 first quarter lead. Both teams scored 10 each in the second quarter as the Vikings held on for a 23-15 halftime advantage.

Bigfork held their lead and added to it in the second half as they eased to the win and a spot in the championship game against Eureka.

LeCoure paced T Falls with nine points, while Issak Epperly topped all scorers with 13 points.

Thompson Falls then went on to crush Sanders County rival Plains 72-28 in the consolation round Saturday morning before meeting up with St. Ignatius in the consolation finals.

According to recently released brackets from the 6B conference, which supplies the opponents for the Western B Divisional tournament in Anaconda this coming weekend, Thompson Falls girls will open play at 9:45 Thursday morning against Florence-Carlton, the third seed from 6B.

The winner of that game will advance to take on the winner of the game between 6B number one seed Loyola and 7B fourth seed Eureka.

In the boys bracket, fourth seed Thompson Falls faces 6B number one seed Loyola at 11:30 a.m. Thursday. The winner of that match-up takes on the winner of the game between 6B three seed Florence-Carlton and 7B second seed Eureka Friday at 6:30 p.m.