Often, consolation rounds can have “con” sequences.

In the case of this past weekend’s District 14C boys and girls basketball tournament in Polson, not giving up the fight during the consolation rounds included a reward.

That may well be the case for this year’s third-place winners who both earned a shot at bumping the championship game runner-up and taking their place on the trip to the divisional tournament this weekend in Butte.

First, both Superior’s boys and St. Regis’ girls had to grind it out through the consolation rounds, which some folks think are just for losers.

That was not the case for the Superior boys, who won the consolation round 45-32 over Hot Springs, and the St. Regis girls, who did likewise in defeating the Noxon Lady Devils 46-36.

To get to the consolation final, both teams had to earn early Saturday wins, and that they did.

Superior earned a shot at joining the Superior girls team at Divisionals in Butte by beating boys No. 1 seed Charlo, which lost to St. Regis 57-51 in Saturday’s 14C championship game in Polson. That game was held last night (Monday) in Thompson Falls, with the winner advancing to Butte as the district’s number two seed.

It was the same scenario for the Lady Tigers from St. Regis, who won the consolation round with a 46-36 win over Noxon. St. Regis played Charlo’s girls last night to determine the ladies number two seed.

Superior’s boys began their journey through the comeback circuit by upsetting number three seed Two Eagle River in a 9 a.m. Saturday game. The Bobcats beat the Eagles, who were beaten in Friday night’s semi-finals by District champion St. Regis 51-35.

Superior, which has been a much improved team over the past few weeks thanks in part to an infusion of eighth grade talent, rolled to a 16-6 first quarter lead, then expanded their advantage to 28-13 by halftime.

Two Eagle River shaved three points off the lead in the third quarter, but Superior put an end to the comeback attempt in the fourth quarter to earn a spot in Saturday afternoon’s consolation final against Springs.

Orion Plakke and Tucker Donaldson scored 15 points each to lead the Superior win. Three hours later the Bobcats faced Hot Springs, which took down Noxon’s boys 44-36 in another 9 a.m. Saturday.

The consolation final was a tight game in the first half, with Superior emerging in front 21-16 at the break. Hot Springs came back in the third quarter to pull within two points, 29-27 with one quarter to play.

Superior then took charge and outscored Hot Springs 16-5 over the final eight minutes of regulation to secure their win and hope Charlo’s boys would lose for the Bobcats to have a chance at advancing to Butte.

One of the recently promoted eighth graders, Gannon Quinlan, led all scorers with 19 points and continued his hot shooting and ball handling abilities since being added to the varsity squad.

Quincy Styles-Depoe was top scorer for Hot Springs, which went 1-2 in the tournament.

The story was somewhat similar for St. Regis’ girls and their path to a challenge shot against Charlo’s girls last night in T Falls.

The Lady Tigers played a 10:45 game Saturday morning against the Two Eagle River Lady Eagles and beat them 50-34 to advance to the consolation final. In the Two River game, St. Regis took a 21-6 first quarter lead and never looked back as they rolled to the win and the consolation final.

The Noxon girls had earned their spot in the consolation final with a 47-42 win over Hot Springs’ Lady Savage Heat. Hot Springs struck first and built a 13-9 lead after the first eight minutes of play, then held on for a 17-14 halftime advantage.

The Lady heat upped their lead to 33-23 at the end of the third quarter, but could not contain Noxon standout forward Emily Brown who almost single handedly outscored the Heat.

Brown, a senior, scored a tournament high 40 points to lead the Lady Devils to the win and into the game versus St. Regis. Hot Springs was outscored 24-9 in the final quarter as their season came to an end.

The Heat finished the year with a 6-12 overall record, but have an outstanding group of underclassmen who will take the reigns next year. After losing to St. Regis, Noxon wound up the year with an 11-11 season mark.

Results of the two Charlo challenge games were not available at press time for the Valley Press or the Mineral Independent.