St. Maries falls to Weiser in 3A semis
MERIDIAN - For a team which made just 5 of 26 shots from the floor in the first half, the St. Maries Lumberjacks sure made it interesting in the second half of their state 3A boys basketball semifinal game Friday night.
The Lumberjacks battled back to within four points late in the game, but the Weiser Wolverines weathered the comeback and made 7 of 8 free throws in the final 1:20 to prevail 56-43 before a spirited crowd at Meridian High.
"I don't know what it is. The last four games, even in our district tournament, we went into a slump shooting," St. Maries coach Craig Wicks said. "I don't know if we broke out of it in the second half or not, but we shot the ball better. I think we were playing timid in that first half, not shooting the ball - just throwing it up there."
St. Maries (19-6) plays Snake River (18-6) today at 10 a.m. PST for third place. St. Maries was fourth two years ago, then went two and out last year.
Fruitland (18-6), which beat defending champion Priest River on Thursday, defeated Snake River 72-57 in the other semifinal and plays Weiser for the state title today at the Idaho Center in Nampa.
Senior Ian Heath had 11 points and 11 rebounds for St. Maries, which finished 18 for 58 (31 percent) from the field for the game.
Sophomore Warren Joiner added 11 points, nine coming in the second half.
“We weren’t playing with intensity, and weren’t hitting shots and weren’t running our offense,” Joiner said of the first half. “We just came out flat tonight. I don’t really know what happened in the first half.”
Austin Winegar, a 6-foot-2 senior guard, scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half for Weiser. Issac Zanelli added 10 points, and Drew McKie, a 6-4 junior post, had 9 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots.
“I thought we had a good game plan coming into it,” Wicks said. “We came out in that triangle-and-two, and tried to limit Winegar and McKie’s shots and touches. Defensively, it was working well, but offensively, when you don’t put the ball in the hole, things are going to have to change somewhere — we were too far behind to stay with that.”
In the second half, St. Maries matched its five first-half baskets by midway through the third quarter.
Jake Mercer’s driving layup capped a 10-0 run and pulled St. Maries within 41-36 with 5:13 left.
Tyler Hemphill answered with a 3-pointer for Weiser, and the Wolverines went on to increase their lead to nine.
But Mercer buried a 3 — St. Maries’s first 3-pointer of the game — and Satchel Schetzle’s basket made it a four-point game with 1 1/2 minutes left. But the ‘Jacks had to foul, and Weiser finished them off from the line.
“We played a good second half, but when you’re at the state tournament, you can’t play a half of basketball,” Wicks said.
Weiser 12 14 15 15 — 56
St. Maries 7 6 17 13 — 43
WEISER — Bumgarner 0, Roberts 8, Hemphill 6, Herrick 0, Zanelli 10, Chandler 6, Winegar 17, McKie 9. Totals 19-39 14-18 56.
ST. MARIES — Joiner 11, Schetzle 2, Sampson 0, Lehman 4, Guidry 4, Mercer 11, Kennelly 0, Heath 11, Cordell 0. Totals 18-58 6-9 43.