Hitting your stride when the playoffs come to town is always a good thing.

That is what has been happening with the Thompson Falls boys basketball team as they prepare for this coming weekend’s District 7B conference tournament in St. Ignatius.

The Blue Hawks picked up a pair of wins to close out their regular season schedule, beating Troy 44-29 Thursday in Troy, then returning home Saturday and topping Superior 51-34.

The two wins pushed the Hawks 7B record to 8-2, good for second place behind conference leader Eureka, which closed out its regular season with an unblemished 10-0 league mark.

Thursday in Troy, the Blue Hawks took on the Trojans and fought to a 12-7 lead after one quarter of play. Then, in the second quarter, both teams found scoring a difficult task, via cold shooting and good defense. Troy outscored T Falls 5-4 in the quarter, leaving the visitors with a 16-12 halftime lead.

But the Blue Hawks amped it up a bit in the third quarter, outscoring the home boys 13-4 to take a 29-15 lead with one quarter to go.

The teams swapped baskets in the final eight minutes of play, with T Falls adding two points to its lead to secure their seventh league win against two losses, both of them to Eureka.

Bryson LeCoure led T Falls with 17 points, while also grabbing seven rebounds. T Falls out-rebounded Troy 38-33 for the game, led by the nine snared by senior guard Nick Tessier.

Carson Orr led Troy with 12 points.

The Hawks returned to their home court Saturday night in their season finale, which did not start the way they hoped.

Superior outscored the Hawks 12-2 in the first quarter and held a narrow 20-17 edge at halftime.

However, LeCoure and company got things rolling in the second half, outscoring the visiting Bobcats 18-8 in the third quarter to eradicate the halftime deficit and take a 35-28 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Hawks kept up their defensive pressure in the final eight minutes of play, holding the Bobcats to six points while scoring 16 to secure the win and the second seed in the 7B.

Lecoure was once again the game’s leading scorer, dropping 21 on the Cats. Tessier added 10 for T Falls. Freshman Gannon Qunilan led the Cats with nine points. Superior closed league play at 4-6.

Thompson Falls out-rebounded Superior 28-23, with Tessier hauling in a team-best six boards for the Hawks.

Thompson shot 50% from the field, going 20-40 on the night.

Both teams head to St. Ignatius, pending play-in action this Monday and Tuesday.  

    Bobcats 6-5 freshman post Landon Richards blocks a shot attempt by Thompson Falls' Nick Tessier during their game Saturday night in T Falls. (photo by Byron Quinlan)