Lynx lose Saturday shootout with Seeley Blackhawks

The football team from Seeley Lake left their shoulder pads home and donned basketball jerseys for their Saturday, Jan. 11 basketball game with the hometown Lincoln Lynx, and it was clear that they were used to

thundering up and down the field of play.

Starting Blackhawk quarterback in the 2019 football season, Owen Mercado, dominated this basketball night with his six-foot-three, 185 pounds of offensive and defensive strength, scoring 26 points and most of the rebounds. Mercado was unstoppable. The rest of the Blackhawk starters, most of them over 200 pounds and six feet tall, made an impressive gridiron/round ball squad as well: defensive ends, wide receivers and linebackers in October; guards and post players in January.

'David and Goliath' came to mind as the Lynx fought valiantly to stay in the game.

By the fourth quarter, the Lincoln Lynx were playing three eighth graders

and a freshman after Trenton Grantier fouled out. The crowd kept expecting the Seeley coach to sub in his JV players, but the Blackhawks kept running up the score until the final buzzer.

Blackhawks win: 35 - 72.

The Lynx put up five three-pointers and lots of hustle right until the end, but the Seeley men not only out-weighed the Lynx, they were on average three years older and wiser. Senior Ryan Greenwood was Lincoln's top scorer with 14 points, Brad Howard added ten; Nathan Brown racked up nine on an injured ankle and Grantier put up two.

Making his varsity debut was Logan Joyce, who was called up from the junior high team after Brodi Henderson became ineligible. It takes a lot of courage for four younger fellows to face such big, formidable opponents but, as they say, that's how character is formed. Even a loss has some redeeming values.