St. Maries ousted from tourney
<p>St. Maries High's Jake Mercer tries to grab a rebound while in between Fruitland High's Joey Martarano, left, and Kody Olinger during the first half of game Friday at the state 3A boys basketball tournament at Meridian High School.</p>
MERIDIAN — St. Maries rallied late in the fourth quarter, but could not overcome a 33-19 deficit in a 43-37 loss to end its run in the 3A state tournament Friday at Meridian High.
Devin Decroo and Jacob Crim had 13 points apiece for the Grizzlies (17-7), who face Homedale today at 8:15 a.m. PST in the consolation championship game for fourth and sixth place.
Jake Mercer had nine points and Ian Heath nine rebounds for St. Maries, which finishes its season 12-10. St. Maries outrebounded Fruitland 38-25 game and was 12 of 15 from the free-throw line.
St. Maries 6 5 6 20 — 37
Fruitland 10 9 11 13 — 43
ST. MARIES — Appel 0, Doman 0, Patzer 7, T. Sampson 8, Anderson 0, Cordell 2, Guidry 0, Heath 5, Lehman 6, Mercer 9, C. Sampson 0, Schetzle 0, Joiner 0. Totals 11-37 12-15 37.
FRUITLAND — Decroo 13, Rayo 3, Holt 0, Olinger 6, Wright 0, Van Patten 6, Livingston 0, Johnson 0, Graves 0, Martrano 2, Dahle 0, Crim 13. Totals 13-40 12-24 43.
Priest River 60
Shelley 49
MERIDIAN — Senior Jake Weimer had 17 points to lead the Spartans to the state 3A championship game following a win over the Russets at Meridian High.
“We had a coaches meeting last night and decided that our goal was to contain the inside defensively and force them (Shelley) to shoot from the outside,” Spartans coach Ryan Bodecker said. He added, “We really did a good job of fighting through screens and communicating to make the run in the first half.”
McKay Cannon had 14 points for Shelley, which faces Snake River in the third-place game today at 10 a.m. at Meridian High.
Priest River will face Salmon today at 2:50 p.m. PST at the Idaho Center.
Priest River 16 13 11 20 — 60
Shelley 7 5 17 20 — 49
PRIEST RIVER — Barrett 0, Simpkins 0, Douglas 10, Bach 0, Collins 0, Salesky 15, Holbrook 12, Weimer 17, Willig 2, Yount 4, Payment 0.
SHELLEY — Call 6, Christensen 10, Nii 3, Stommel 13, Cannon 14, Cather 0, Bono 1, Huntsman 0, Wilson 2, Fredrickson 0, Anderson 0, Hanson 0, Ehlers 0.
CALDWELL — Mackay senior Kole Krosch scored 32 points to lead the Miners past the Warriors in a loser-out game in the 1A Division II tournament at Caldwell High.
“We threw the kitchen sink at him tonight,” Kootenai coach Andrew Whipple said of Krosch. “We tried box-and-one and man defense on him — he’s the real deal. He is the best player we’ve seen all season long. The kids played hard and gave it everything they had.”
Hayden Kraack had 12 points and Taylor Dodson 10 points for Kootenai, which went 0-2 in their first state tournament appearance since 2004.
“Even though we came out of here 0-2,” Whipple said. “It was a learning experience. It was a new experience for our guys playing on this stage. We finished with a winning record, so just making it to state was a big deal. We finished second overall in the North Star League and got to host a playoff game to go to state — I’m real satisfied with the way the season went.”
Jake Zarpentine added nine rebounds for Kootenai, who finishes the season 12-11.
Mackay will face the winner of North Gem-Salmon today in the consolation championship game at 8:15 a.m. PST.
Mackay 9 17 16 15 — 57
Kootenai 11 9 10 6 — 36
MACKAY — Foster 7, Hoagland 10, Pearson 2, Donnot 6, Krosch 32. Totals 23-55 9-14 57.
KOOTENAI — Jake Zarpentine 2, D. Zarpentine 4, Myhre 0, Wallace 3, Dodson 10, Carman 0, Whipple 0, Kraack 12, Reynolds 5, Law 0, Sheppard 0, Bornitz 0. Totals 15-44 4-8 36.