Opening day of the 2021-22 high school basketball season got off to a solid start for both the Thompson Falls boys and girls teams, thanks to a familiar foe and familiar results.

Saturday evening in Troy, the girls opened their new campaign with a resounding 63-7 thumping of the Lady Trojans. Later that evening the Blue Hawks boys also won big, pounding the Troy boys 65-39.

Both contests were Western B conference games.

The Lady Hawks got the Thompson Falls wagon rolling early as they jumped to an insurmountable 29-5 lead over the host Lady Trojans. Thompson Falls dominated in all phases of the game in the first quarter, a trend that would continue and in fact get more pronounced as the game wore on.

With Troy reeling from the opening quarter salvo fired by the more experienced and talented Lady Hawks, things got worse for the Trojans, who could not find the basket in the second quarter. T Falls outscored Troy 18-0 in the second quarter to take a commanding 47-5 lead at the half.

From there the Lady Hawks’ reserves and underclassmen got some solid court time, with similar results on the defensive end.

The visiting Blue Hawks held Troy scoreless in the third quarter also, while extending their lead to 56-5 heading into the final eight minutes of play. The large lead also triggered the Montana high school Mercy Rule that keeps the clock running when one team is 40 or more points ahead at any given time in the game.

And the quick moving clock may have been a blessing in disguise for the out-everything-ed Lady Trojans, who managed just one bucket in the fourth quarter, giving them two total points over the final three periods of play.

The Thompson Falls boys squad then took to the court and found the Troy boys a bit more challenging, at least in the early going, than their female counterparts.

Troy put up a tight defense against the Blue Hawks in the first quarter and held the visitors to just six points as the Trojans took a 10-6 lead at the end of the first eight minutes of play.

Things began to change in the second quarter as Thompson Falls, which had eight players score points during the game, found the basket with greater frequency and outscored Troy 19-11 to take a 25-21 lead at the half.

Jesse Claridge, a 6-2 junior forward, began to light things up in the third quarter as Thompson Falls added to its halftime advantage. Claridge, who scored 23 points on the night to lead all scorers, helped the Blue Hawks outpace Troy 19-5 in the third quarter. That gave T Falls a relatively comfortable 44-26 lead heading into the final eight minutes of the game.

Claridge was one of four Blue Hawks to score in double figures, with sophomore guard Braxton Dorscher chipping in 11, and juniors Ben Cooper and Adam Childers adding 10 points each.

Both teams were more aggressive offensively in the fourth quarter, which saw the Blue Hawks strengthen their lead by outscoring Troy 21-13 to secure the big win.

Both Thompson Falls teams next action comes this weekend when they travel to Anaconda for the annual Anaconda Tip-off event, Friday and Saturday the 10th and 11th of December.