Until they meet down the road
In the case of most holiday tournaments, it’s a chance to see someone that you’d normally not get a chance to do in any other setting.
Then again, in some cases, it just can’t be avoided.
AS IT so happened on Thursday afternoon, the Kellogg and St. Maries boys and girls basketball teams found themselves in rematches of that Brawl for the Ball spirit game a little earlier than anticipated.
Before the holiday break started, Kellogg handed the St. Maries boys their first loss of the season, 58-51 at Andrews Gymnasium in Kellogg on Dec. 17. Earlier that day, St. Maries’ girls beat Kellogg 58-49 in a game that was geared more for the crowd participation than running strategy.
Both teams fell in the opening round of the Freeman tournament on Wednesday, St. Maries losing to Northwest Christian of Colbert, Wash., and Kellogg to tournament host Freeman High in Rockford, Wash.
The games — both nonleague still — were a lot closer the second time around, as Kellogg’s boys won 58-56 and St. Maries’ girls picked up a 40-36 win.
“I don’t think either team was happy to play each other at first,” St. Maries coach Bryan Chase said. “We always have a good battle with them, and both teams got up for the occasion. We’ll play them again in a few weeks, but both had tough matchups that first night. It was a good learning experience for both of us. Northwest Christian and Freeman are good programs.”
After falling behind 20-11 at halftime, Kellogg coach Eli Bourgard found plenty to be happy about, despite the four-point setback.
“The biggest difference was we rebounded the ball a lot better than the previous game,” Bourgard said. “We just had a lot more fight and stuck to our gameplan a lot better than before.”
St. Maries and Kellogg will meet again on Jan. 27 in St. Maries, with the boys playing again a week later on Feb. 3, again in St. Maries.
THANKS TO moving to the Northwest Athletic Conference earlier this year, the North Idaho College women’s basketball got a chance to play a little earlier than scheduled on Friday, beating Centralia 74-47 to finish 2-1 in the Red Devil Holiday Classic on the campus of Lower Columbia College in Longview, Wash.
Lana Berg, for the third straight game, led the Cardinals in scoring with 12 points in Friday’s win.
“She’s really hung in there and matured out of her freshman status and I’m really proud of her,” NIC women’s basketball coach Chris Carlson said. “She’s got a lot of confidence and doing some good things on the court for us right now. It’s awesome for her to be playing like that.”
NIC, which was scheduled to play Yakima Valley on Friday, didn’t because both teams play in the East Region, and the opponents were changed.
That won’t be the case next weekend as the Cardinals — both men’s and women’s basketball programs — will open the NWAC era next Saturday against — you guessed it — Yakima Valley, with the women’s game scheduled for 2 p.m., followed by the men’s game at 4.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.