Not ones to fear failure, the Blue Hawk boys faced it down and battled gamely to the end, but that end still came in Eureka Saturday.

Falling victim to the fact that District 7B did not have a conference tournament or even a second chance in the form of a play-in game, the Thompson Falls Blue Hawks lost 52-31 to the Lions in Lincoln County to end season play.

Although the Hawks and the Plains Horsemen both ended up 2-6 in District 7B conference play, Plains earned the conference’s fourth spot into this week’s Western B divisional tournament based on head-to-head points scored versus each other.

As a result, Plains moves on to the Western B this week while the Hawks will be left watching.

Coach Jake Mickleson said another cold start ended up dooming the Hawks in the late night game in Eureka, which didn’t end up beginning until well past 8 p.m. largely due to senior night activities for the Lions and Lady Lions.

“We missed some shots early and were a little tentative offensively in the first half,” he said. “We played a lot better in the second half, I never felt like we were truly out of the game.”

Junior Ethan Burgess turned in another fine all-around performance in leading the Hawks in Eureka, scoring 15 points, pulling down seven rebounds and six steals, and passing out two assists.

Making more of an impact each game recently, Brylon VanElswyk scored seven points and collected eight rebounds, Kellen LeCoure added three points, 10 rebounds, an assist and two steals, Landon Baird two points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal, Alex Newman two points, three rebounds and a steal and Jacob Sprang two points.

Individual Eureka scoring was not available.