Tigers, Spartans to battle for title on Wednesday

COEUR d'ALENE - About three minutes into the game, Timberlake girls basketball coach Matt Miller sent five new players onto the floor.

It wasn't a punishment as much as it was as a tryout.

"Our last couple of games, I thought our strength most of the season was how hard and smart most of the girls worked consistently," Miller said. "And our last couple of games, I didn't feel like everybody had been working as hard and doing the details. So I told them that everybody, in the first three minutes, is going to get a chance to play, and we're going to find out who's coming to play, who's going to work. And from then on, you're going to have to earn your minutes."

Though the pace of play wasn't to his liking, he was pleased with his team's effort in a 37-19 victory over Kellogg in the semifinals of the 3A District 1 tournament Monday night at North Idaho College's Rolly Williams Court.

"I thought they all played hard," Miller said. "It was harder to evaluate them because it was such a different game than we normally play. We usually shoot 60-70 times."

The Tigers shot about half that many times Monday night.

Timberlake (18-3), ranked No. 1 in the state in 3A, will play Priest River (14-6) in the district championship game Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. at NIC. Kellogg (11-9) will play Bonners Ferry (11-10) in a loser-out game at 4:30. Priest River beat Bonners 45-36 in Monday's first semifinal.

Timberlake beat Priest River by 36 and 10 points in Intermountain League play. Priest River beat Timberlake in last year's district title game.

"They are a handful," Priest River coach Gary Stewart said. "Matt, he's got the deepest bench in the league. You can't take a play off against them."

Timberlake 37, Kellogg 19: Keelie Lawler, who missed a handful of games with a concussion, led the Tigers with 13 points off the bench in her first game back.

Timberlake jumped to leads of 8-0 in the first quarter and 15-2 in the second, and never let Kellogg any closer than 10 points in the second half.

Freshman Kayle Jezek added seven points off the bench for Timberlake.

"Yeah, they held the ball pretty much the whole time," Miller said. "I feel sorry for anybody who had to buy a ticket for that. We normally like to play very fast, and they were trying to limit possessions, and take as much time as they could on each possession to shorten the game. It helped that we got a couple buckets early; it's harder to stall when you don't have the lead."

Kellogg went more than 7 minutes in the first quarter before scoring. At halftime, Kellogg had 12 turnovers and nine shot attempts. The Wildcats finished with 17 turnovers.

"We tried to slow it down; we figured that would give us the best chance to win," Kellogg coach Eli Bourgard said. "I felt like we executed our offense real well; we were patient. But our defense kind of let us down. We were fouling shooters in the first quarter, and giving them second and third shots."

Marley Chambers had eight points, five rebounds and two steals for Kellogg.

"They've got a heckuva team," Bourgard said of Timberlake. "Hopefully they take it as a compliment, us trying to slow them down."

Kellogg 2 6 4 7 - 19

Timberlake 8 10 8 11 - 37

KELLOGG - Wendt 5, Lo 4, Zisk 2, Sheppard 0, Chambers 8, Bircher 0.

TIMBERLAKE - R. Powell 1, Kelley 0, Rhodes 5, Mallet 4, Starr 1, Jezek 7, Kirby 0, Gardom 2, Simpson 4, Lawler 13.

Priest River 45, Bonners Ferry 36: The Spartans overcame a drought of 7 minutes, 52 seconds to start the second quarter, outscoring the Badgers 31-17 in the second half.

"Our second quarter was horrible," Stewart said. "Bonners did a good job of adjusting; they took away our inside. In the third quarter we tried a couple different sets we hadn't used in a while; we just tried to get them running enough variety of sets where they (the Badgers) couldn't lock in on anybody."

Katlyn Summers, the reigning MVP of the IML, led all scorers with 15 points, and she also had 10 rebounds. Sophomore Melissa Krampert, who averages around 3 points a game, added a season high 13.

"Melissa Krampert had a great game," Stewart said.

Summers had a couple of baskets in Priest River's 9-0 run to start the third quarter. But Bonners answered with a 9-2 run of its own, led by a basket and 3-pointer by Abby Skeen, to go up 28-25.

Summers scored from an assist by Avery Summers late in the third quarter to put Priest River up 29-28, and the Spartans never trailed again.

Priest River committed 15 turnovers in the first half, and finished with 23. Bonners Ferry had 18 turnovers.

Jasmine Hill scored 11 points and had three steals for Bonners Ferry, which outscored Priest River 14-2 in the second quarter to take a 19-14 halftime lead.

Bonners Ferry 5 14 9 8 - 36

Priest River 12 2 15 16 - 45

BONNERS FERRY - A. Skeen 7, Morgan 0, Oxford 0, Byers 4, Woods 10, Hill 11, Davis 2, Everhard 0, Wenk 2.

PRIEST RIVER - Clark 2, A. Summers 3, Krampert 13, Carey 4, Williams 6, Akre 2, K. Summers 15, DeMent 0.