Don’t look now but the young guys on the block are playing winning basketball.

And not to be outdone, the girls got in on the action too.

Such is life this past week at Plains High, where the boys and girls teams each won a pair of games this past week.

That’s two more than last year for the girls and three more than 2021-22 for the boys.

Saturday night the Horsemen put the finishing touches on a successful weekend when they edged visiting Troy 46-40. Last Tuesday they beat Hot Springs on the road, 40-32 to run their season mark to 3-2 for a team full of sophomores and juniors.

The girls, meanwhile, improved to 2-3 with the duo wins.

Both teams lost to Thompson Falls Friday in T Falls (see accompanying story).

Against Troy, the Horsemen overcame an 8-4 first quarter deficit that was due to cold shooting and good Trojan defense.

However, the Horsemen came back in the second quarter, outscored the visitors 14-8 and seized a narrow 18-16 halftime lead.

With Jayden Weeks and Darren Standeford leading the way, Plains held onto their slim lead the rest of the game, narrowly outscoring the Trojans in both the third and fourth quarters to finally secure their third win of the young season.

Weeks and Standeford scored 18 points each in the winning effort, much to the delight of a sizeable crowd at Plains High.

The boys opened their week this past Tuesday with the win against the Savage Heat in Hot Springs.

Plains took a 12-7 advantage at the end of the first quarter and increased it to 24-13 by halftime.

The two teams battled back and forth in the final two periods with Hot Springs shaving three points off the Horsemen’s lead but it was not enough to overcome the first half deficit.

The win gave Plains a 2-1 season mark while Hot Springs fell to 1-3 with the loss.

Horsemen head coach Tyrel Allen was pleased with his young team’s progress.

“I’m happy with the 3-2 record as we continue to build,” he said. “We are in a tough conference for sure and the next week against Mission should tell me a lot”.

The Trotters, meanwhile, played one of the best games of the year Tuesday against the Hot Springs Lady Savage Heat, winning 37-35 in a game that was tied numerous times with several lead changes.

The host team held an 11-8 lead after one quarter of play, but in the second Hot Springs could not find the basket, allowing Plains to overtake them and hold a 16-12 halftime lead. The Trotters held Hot Springs to one point in the second quarter.

The third and fourth quarters were like the first half, with both teams neck and neck until the final whistle.

The win at the time was the first of the year for Plains, while Hot Springs dropped to 1-2 with the loss.

Plains closed out their week with an apparent lopsided win over the visiting Lady Trojans. By halftime the Trotters were up 32-16 and were ahead 44-22 with less than a minute to go in the third quarter.

No final score was posted and the local on-line broadcast seized up near the conclusion of the third period.

Through the third quarter, Plains senior Carlie Wagoner had 13 points to lead the home team, which also got solid rebounding and inside scoring from Lexi Deming.

Next up for Plains boys and girls teams is a meeting tonight (Dec 20) in Bigfork, then a pair of games this Thursday versus Mission at the Plains gym.