News staff writer

The lights were brighter. The floor was shinier. A pep band played in the corner. An actual concession stand doled out “Hawk dogs” to fans. A fully functional sound system let announcer give scoring updates.

For all of the differences between the new gym for the Horizon Hawks and where they played previously, one thing didn’t change: the Hawks kept right on winning.

The Horizon boys routed Arlington 67-26 on the Hawks’ new home floor to finish off a 25-0 regular season on Saturday.

Earlier in the afternoon the Horizon girls team beat the Honkers 37-24 to pick up the first varsity win on the new floor.

“This was a statement game for us,” Horizon boys coach Ron Haynes said. “We just came out and played hard.”

The issue was never really in doubt for the Hawks.

Horizon led by 16 at the half behind 19 first-half points by Bobby Cofrances, including nine in the opening five minutes. Cofrances scored 27 points overall to lead all scorers.

The win sends the Eagles to the Big Sky district tournament as the prohibitive favorites and the No. 1 seed.

However, they also know that their 25-0 record this year, and the fact they have won 38 of their last 39 games, means little once the tournament starts.

“This means absolutely nothing after tonight,” assistant coach Darren Lingel told the team after the game. “We are now 0-0 — but celebrate tonight.”

For the Hawk boys it was quite a way to both open their new gym and wrap up their regular season.

“We just had the passion tonight,” Cofrances said.

For Cofrances and fellow senior Josh Larson it was both their first and last game on the new court, and they both went out in style.

The Honkers had no answer for Cofrances throughout and Larson dominated the inside game to finish with 16 points.

Jake Johnson was the second leading scorer for the Hawks with 16 points.

Now Cofrances does not want to see the team rest on its laurels as it heads to the playoffs.

“We’re just going to have to keep up the intensity,” he said. “We just need to keep playing every game like it’s our last.”

In the earlier game, one would have been forgiven for thinking that the Horizon girls were also playing to finish off an undefeated season. But the Hawk girls harbored no post-season hopes and were coming off a 19-point loss to South Wasco earlier in the week.

That did not stop them from dominating the Honkers virtually from start to finish.

The Hawks led by five at the break thanks to a strong first-half effort from Stephanie Taylor and then broke the game open in the third quarter thanks to repeated Arlington turnovers.

The Hawks also got plenty of second chances on the offensive, dominating the offensive boards for putbacks. Many of those came at the hands of Anna Berthold, who led the Hawks with 15 points. Taylor finished with 13 for Horizon.

“It feels good,” Berthold said afterward. “We are undefeated in our home gym!”

Hawks’ coach Stan Perkins was enthused about the progress that his young team made this season.

“We got the four wins we wanted this year,” he said. “We really wanted this last one.”

While the Hawk girls finish up their season with a 4-21 record, the Horizon boys will be traveling to Umatilla this weekend for the Big Sky District Tournament.