Mike Tessier knew the Shelby Tournament would be a tough tournament to play going in, but he wouldn’t want it any other way anyway. Only the good teams come to play in Shelby, it seems.

Tessier and his Lady Hawks took a couple on the chin last week at the Shelby Tournament but Tessier has no worries about his Lady Hawks moving forward. The Hawks host Anaconda Friday in their home opener and last game of the calendar year.

“Win, lose or draw, we appreciate the chance to go over there and see some different teams,” Tessier said. "We expect great competition and we got it again last week.”

At the Shelby Tournament, the Lady Hawks fell to two quality teams, 78-54 to the mighty Malta Mustangs Friday and 63-48 to the host Shelby Coyotes Saturday.

“We got the cream of the crop over there, two of the better teams in that area,” Tessier said. "We didn’t play poorly in either game, it was just definitely quality competition, games we can learn from, for sure.”

Although the games didn’t go the Hawks’ way in Shelby, senior Solveig Nygaard had a career game in scoring 29 points to lead Thompson Falls against Shelby Saturday. Senior running mate Annalise Fairbank scored 11 against the Coyotes.

“Solveig was on fire in that game, the basket was the size of a car hood for her, she couldn’t miss,” Tessier said admiringly. “She elevated her game in that one.”

As hot as Nygaard was, Tessier said a few other Hawks struggled mightily shooting in Shelby, adding to their troubles against the quality teams they were facing.

Rowan Russell scored 20 points and Hadley Carr and Addison Richman 16 apiece for Shelby.

No scoring was available from the Malta game.

Tesseir looks forward to the Lady Hawks’ game with Anaconda Friday.

“We have kind of become rivals with Anaconda in a way over the last few years,” he said. “We know that we are looking for another tough game, the Copperheads always seem to show up ready to play.”