After a hot start, the Thompson Falls girls basketball team has cooled, albeit slightly, as the 2021-22 Montana high school girls regular season nears its final two weekends.

Thompson Falls opened the week this past Friday with a home win over hapless Troy, 69-19, then traveled to Anaconda where they lost a tight 59-55 game Saturday evening.

The split left Thompson Falls with a lofty 11-3 overall record and moved them to 5-2 in Western 7B play with the victory over Troy.

The game against Troy on Friday was a definition of the phrase “it was all” in this case Thompson Falls, in the early going.

The Lady Hawks dominated every phrase of the game against the 0-8 Lady Trojans as they exploded for a 34-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Game, set, match.

The Hawks added to that insurmountable lead in the second quarter by outscoring Troy 21-11 on their way to a 55-11 halftime advantage. With the Montana 40-point Mercy Rule in effect, the rest of the game went by quickly.

Thompson Falls pitched another shutout in the third quarter by outscoring Troy 7-0. Heading into the final quarter, the Lady Hawks were ahead 62-11 as they coasted to the conference victory.

Ellie Baxter paced the T Falls offense with 18 points. The Hawks also got 12 points from Chesney Lowe as they routed the visitors on every phase of the game.

As easy as the win over Troy was the night before, the Hawks knew things would not be the same against Anaconda, which came into the contest with a 10-3 record.

And despite getting double figure scoring from three players, the T Falls squad could not put away the Lady Copperheads, who used a fourth quarter rally to erase a three point deficit and win by four.

The host Copperheads battled the visiting Hawks to a 17-15 Anaconda lead at the end of the first quarter. That lead grew marginally to 33-28 by halftime. Mariyah Lunceford, had 20 points for the Copperheads to lead all scorers on the night and was instrumental in checking the T Falls offense.

Thompson Falls had rallied in the third quarter to take the lead 42-39 heading into the final eight minutes of play. But Lunceford and company enjoyed the home cooking and went on to record their 11th victory of the year.

Baxter led Thompson Falls with 16 points, while Avery Burgess added 13 and Lowe added 12.

T Falls plays at home Friday against Loyola, then entertains Eureka Saturday evening.