Pressing on

BOISE - With St. Maries trailing by eight points early in the second quarter, Lumberjacks coach Bryan Chase told his team to keep plugging away.

Keep shooting - the shots will fall. And keep playing that pressing defense.

The Lumberjacks finished the second quarter with the lead, built a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter, then survived a wild last three minutes for a 58-54 victory over the Declo Hornets in the first round of the state 2A boys basketball tournament Thursday afternoon at Capital High.

"That's kind of been our motto all year, to try and create the pressure," Chase said. "We've got a pretty deep bench, I play about 10 guys, and we like to keep a fast pace. We knew they had some pretty good guards, but ... we saw some opportunity to create some turnovers."

St. Maries (17-4) advanced to the semifinals, where it will face Soda Springs (21-6) tonight at 5:15 p.m. PST. Soda Springs defeated Nampa Christian 63-31.

Declo (17-6) led 18-10 early in the second quarter when St. Maries went to work. The Lumberjacks went up 29-26 at the half, and built it to 52-40 in the fourth quarter before Declo staged a late comeback.

"We started playing defense, and got back in the game," said St. Maries senior forward Jacob Greer, who hit a pair of big 3-pointers in the third quarter, and led the Lumberjacks with 12 points.

AJ Becktel added nine points and seven rebounds for St. Maries, Mathew Smith had nine points and four assists, and Logan Feasline had seven points and 11 rebounds.

"That was our goal, to make one run, to make it close at halftime," Chase said, "and we actually went on a big enough run to take the lead at the half."

Jacson Duncan led Declo with 11 points.

St. Maries still led 52-45 with 3 minutes left. But the Lumberjacks missed the front end of three straight one-and-ones, and Declo pulled within 53-51 on Kyle Heward's putback with 50 seconds left. The Hornets had a chance to tie after a steal, but a driving layup try trickled off the rim. Dakota Wilson of St. Maries made a pair of free throws with 31.7 seconds left to make it 55-51, and after Heward's 3-pointer with 5 seconds left pulled Declo within 57-54, Feasline got the second of two free throws to drop with 3.3 seconds left to ice the game and put St. Maries, at state for the first time since 2012, into the semifinals for the first time since 2011.

"It's the best feeling in the world," Greer said.

St. Maries 10 19 15 14 - 58

Declo 16 10 14 14 - 54

ST. MARIES - Lounsbury 6, Gibson 4, Sieler 0, Truscott 0, Greer 12, Wilson 7, Asbury 4, Smith 9, Feasline 7, Becktel 9. Totals 22-55 11-19 58.

DECLO - Duncan 11, Webb 5, Schroeder 7, Baker 2, Garner 8, Taylor 8, Heward 8, Nance 5. Totals 18-48 14-22 54.