It was an arresting evening for Thompson Falls boys’ basketball team as they locked up a 69-58 victory in Deer Lodge against the Wardens.

The Lady Hawks, meanwhile, wandered into the upper Idaho panhandle where they encountered the Bonners Ferry Badgers, an Idaho 4A school and defeated the home team 61-57. 

The boys rolled into Deer Lodge sporting a 3-2 pre-break record and took an early 14-8 lead after the first quarter of play in this nonconference class B matchup. 

Senior forward Bryson LeCoure continued his torrid scoring start to the 2024-25 season against the Wardens, pouring in a game-best 26 points for the Blue Hawks. 

The host team fought back in the second quarter, outscoring T Falls 20-17 as they trimmed the Blue Hawks’ lead to 31-28 at the half. 

Thompson Falls came out after the intermission and added eight points to their halftime lead in the third quarter, giving them a 53-41 lead heading into the final eight minutes of regulation play. 

Both teams traded baskets in the fourth quarter, but Deer Lodge could not climb out of the 12-point deficit from earlier in the game as T Falls held on for the victory that boosted their season mark to 4-2. 

The Blue Hawks had a balanced scoring attack in addition to the outburst from LeCoure, including double figure scoring from Braedon Ferris (12 points) and Owen Doyle (11 points).  They also got nine points from senior Kaden Robins, who had a trio of three-pointers, and eight points from Sam Burges. 

Ferris and Ethan Burgess led the Blue Hawks’ rebounding effort with seven each. T Falls had 33 total rebounds, including 13 on the offensive end. 

Next up for the Blue Hawks is a road trip to St. Ignatius for a conference game versus Mission High tonight (Tuesday, Jan 7). 

The Lady Hawks, who also face Mission tonight in St. Ignatius, won their second game of the season against the Lady Badgers, who took a hard-fought 12-11 lead after one quarter of play. 

Bonners Ferry increased their lead to 26-21 at halftime by outscoring T Falls 14-10 in the second quarter. 

But the Lady Hawks hung close to the home team, which added two points to their lead in the third quarter, giving them a 41-34 lead entering the fourth quarter. 

Then, in the fourth quarter, the Lady Hawks offense came alive, scoring 27 points while holding Bonners Ferry to 16 as T Falls on their way to overcoming the game-long deficit. They took the lead and held on for the four-point, 61-57 win, fueled in large part by a trio of players who tallied double figure point totals. 

Addy Deal led the Lady Hawks in scoring with 21 points.  T Falls also got 15 points from guard Solvieg Nygaard and 12 from junior forward Gabi Hannum. 

The win lifted the Lady Hawks to 2-4 on the young season. 

In addition to their games in St. Ignatius, both T Falls teams will travel to Missoula where they will face the Loyola teams this Thursday (Jan 9).  They return to their home court in Thompson Falls on Saturday for games versus Charlo.