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Thompson Falls, Plains clash in rivalry matchup

| January 25, 2023 12:00 AM

It was rivalry week for high school basketball teams in Sanders and Mineral counties this past week with Plains and Thompson Falls renewing their decades old clash Friday night in Plains.

Other rivalry games included Hot Springs vs Noxon and Superior against St. Regis.

In Plains, all eyes were on the home team taking on the once-beaten Lady Hawks from Thompson Falls, to whom they lost 59-8 in the Friday night game. The Lady Hawks opened their week a day earlier with a home win over the Libby Lady Loggers by a 63-29 count.

The Thompson Falls boys played the same two opponents, beating Plains 78-50, after falling in the final moments to Libby 54-50 in a Thursday night home game.

The girls, who have just one loss on the year (to unbeaten league leader Bigfork), opened their game with Plains by blasting out to a 17-2 first quarter lead behind the scoring, rebounding and defense of their senior standouts, Emily Baxter, Avery Burgess, Chesney Lowe and Alivia McCormick, who along with the rest of the Lady Hawks roster made life miserable for Plains.

And if the first quarter was tough, Thompson Falls made it even worse in the second period as they outscored the Trotters 30-1 to build an insurmountable 47-3 halftime lead. With the clock running mostly non-stop due to the mercy rule, T Falls reserves outscored the Trotters and their reserves 12-5 in the second half as the Lady Hawks cruised to the win.

With the victory, T Falls stayed in the hunt for the Western 7B regular season title with a 5-1 record, their only league and season loss coming at the hands of Bigfork.

Plains saw their record dip to 2-10 overall and 1-5 in 7B play.

The Lady Hawks opened their week with a relatively easy win over the Libby Lady Loggers in a non-conference road game in Libby.

T-Falls scratched out a 12-3 first quarter lead as their aggressive, swarming defense befuddled Libby from the start. A 23-9 Lady Hawks scoring advantage in the second quarter propelled them to a 35-12 halftime lead.

They stretched that lead in the second half to and cruised to the comfortable victory.

Senior guard Chesney Lowe led Thompson Falls scoring with 20 points. Baxter added 16 and Burgess threw in 12 to aid the Lady Hawks victorious effort.

The Thompson Falls boys kept their .500 season going with a split of their games this past week.

In their 78-50 win over host Plains, the Blue Hawks clawed out a 21-12 first quarter lead, then grew it to 38-21 at the half.

The young Horsemen could not match the Blue Hawks speed and experience in the second half as T Falls added 11 points on their way to the 7B win.

Sophomore Bryson McClure led all scorers with 28 points to go with his team-high 10 rebounds in the Blue Hawks win. Seniors Jesse Claridge and Breck Ferris helped out the Thompson Falls effort with 10 points each. T Falls shot a respectable 58.3 percent from two-point range against Plains.

Darren Standeford led the Horsemen with 13 points, while Aaron Pfister added 12 for Plains.

Thursday night the Blue Hawks took on the Libby boys team in what turned into a down to the wire, back and forth contest before the Loggers came out on top.

Thompson Falls grabbed an 18-10 first quarter lead, only to go cold from the field in quarter number two as Libby pulled ahead to a 24-20 lead at the half. The Loggers opened the second quarter with an 8-0 scoring run to pull even, then outscored T Falls on their way to a four-point halftime lead.

The score stayed pretty much the same in the third quarter, with the two teams essentially trading baskets. By the end of the third quarter, Libby was holding on to a 39-34 lead.

Midway through the final period, Thompson Falls overtook the Loggers and moved ahead 43-40 before Libby knotted the score at 43 with just under four minutes to go.

The Loggers then used some clutch free throw shooting and a key three-pointer to help erase and overtake the 51-47 Blue Hawks lead over the final two minutes of play.

LeCoure was the leading scorer for T Falls with 14 points, while Ferris added 11. LeCoure also led the Hawks in rebounding with nine, and had a team-best five assists on the night.

Libby got a game-high 26 points from Tyler Anderson as they improved their season record to 6-5.

The Blue Hawks and Lady Hawks have a pair of home games this week, entertaining Troy Friday night and Anaconda Saturday in the Thompson Falls gym.

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Thompson Falls Bryson LeCoure and Braxton Dorscher in a game at Plains. (Tracy Scott/Valley Press)

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Thompson Falls senior Fforward Jesse Claridge goes up strong against Plains. (Tracy Scott/Valley Press)

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Plains' Amy Hill snags a rebound from Thompson Falls' forward Hattie Neesvig. (Tracy Scott/Valley Press)

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Plains Carlie Wagoner races for the basket. (Tracy Scott/Valley Press)

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Lady Hawks guard Ellie Baxter goes up for a shot against Plains. (Tracy Scott/Valley Press)

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