The Thompson Falls Blue Hawks fell into a deep hole early in Thursday’s game at Troy and simply could not fight their way out, eventually falling to the Trojans 63-48.

Trailing 23-6 after an ice-cold shooting effort in the first quarter, the Hawks kept scrapping back after that but could never quite get back in it.

In other action last week, the Hawks held off hot-shooting Shane Hatchel and the rest of the Noxon Red Devils 60-50 in Thompson Falls Tuesday.

Now 1-3 in 7B play and 3-8 overall, coach Jake Mickelson and his Hawks host Mission Thursday for another 7B game and visit Arlee for a non-conference contest Saturday. Mickelson was pleased with the effort of his boys last week, he just thought it took a little too long to kick in in Troy.

“That proved to be too much of a deficit to overcome,” he said. “Especially with the foul trouble we fell into. We played hard, it just took us too long to get going.”

As usual so far this season, Ethan Burgess led the Blue Hawks in Troy, scoring 19 points in addition to grabbing six rebounds and seven steals and passing out five assists.

Jacob Howell added 10 points, five rebounds and two steals, Landin Baird eight points, five boards, two steals and a blocked shot, Kellen LeCoure five points, eight rebounds, three assists and nine steals, Alex Newman four points, a rebound, two steals and a blocked shot, Teagen Dorscher two points and Brylon VanElswyk seven rebounds and a steal.

Carson Orr and Thomas Guinard scored 19 points apiece to pace Troy.

Against Noxon, Burgess again counted a game-high 19 points to pace the Hawks, Howell scored 16, VanElswyk and LeCoure eight apiece, Newman five and Baird four.

    GAME ON! Ethan Burgess of Thompson Falls and Shane Hatchel of Noxon compete for the opening tip in Thompson Falls Jan. 20. (John Hamilton/vp-mi)