Lady Hawks season concludes with 14-8 record
It was like old home week for the Thompson Falls girls basketball team this past week at the Western B Divisional tournament at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo.
The Lady Hawks had three games against three familiar opponents, including their Sanders County rival Plains.
The Hawks opened Divisional play Thursday night with a 62-47 loss to Florence-Carlton, a longtime 7B conference foe. That loss kicked them into the consolation round for their fourth meeting of the year with county rival Plains. And for the fourth time this year they beat the Trotters, this time by a 53-34 margin that eliminated Plains from the tourney.
In their next round of consolation play, T Falls went up against St.Ignatius, the regular season 7B and District tourney champs, and for the third time this year the Bulldogs came out on top, 61-35. eliminating the Lady Hawks from the tourney and ending their 2023-24 season.
Thursday in Pablo, the Lady Falcons from Florence opened an 18-11 first quarter lead and never looked back in their win over T Falls. By halftime the Florence girls had a 31-19 lead. Florence-Carlton added five more points to that lead in the third when they outscored T Falls 18-13 to take a 49-32 lead into the final quarter of regulation.
The Lady Hawks outscored Florence 15-13 in the fourth quarter but it was nowhere near enough to overcome the deficit going into the final eight minutes of play.
Maggie Schneiter scored a game high 19 points to lead Florence-Carlton.
The loss by T Falls sent them into the consolation round where they met up with Plains for the fourth time this year, including two in the regular season and once in the District tourney.
T Falls won all three of those games and added this fourth game to their win quiver, beating the Trotters 53-34, eliminating Plains from the tourney.
The Lady Hawks built a 29-18 halftime lead, then outscored Plains 24-16 over the final two quarters of the game to secure the win. Ava Lawyers scored 16 points to lead Plains, which also got 10 from senior Blakely Lakko.
Solveig Nygaard paced T Falls with 15 points.
The win over Plains propelled T Falls into a third meeting of the season with 7B conference champion St. Ignatius, which beat the Lady Hawks for the third time, this one by a 61-35 count. St. Ignatius jumped all over the Lady Hawks early, exiting the first quarter with a 19-3 lead.
By halftime the Lady Bulldogs were up 33-11 on their way to victory. Thompson Falls fought back in the third quarter, outscoring St. Ignatius 18-7, but the early Bulldogs lead was too much to overcome.
Sophomore standout Gabbi Hannum led T Falls with 16 points, while Cora Matt tied for game high honors with 16 for the Bulldogs, who also got 13 points from Ellannah Flat Lip.
The loss concluded the T Falls girls season with a 14-8 overall record. They finished second to St. Ignatius with an 8-2 regular season 7B conference mark. St. Ignatius finished fourth in the Divisional event with a consolation final loss to Florence-Carlton.