Timberlake romps into state

RATHDRUM — Any time you have six players on an all-league team, you’ve got a pretty good squad.

In the case of the Timberlake High girls basketball team, well, they’re pretty good.

Allison Kirby and McKeeley Tonkin scored 14 points each for the Tigers in a 74-21 win against the Bonners Ferry Badgers in the 3A District 1 championship game on Friday at Lakeland High.

Timberlake jumped out to a 24-0 lead in the first quarter before a 3-pointer by Bonners Ferry guard Kassy Skeen ended the shutout.

“I thought we had the best start possible,” Timberlake coach Matt Miller said. “Right from the beginning, we got some steals and scored some buckets. The intensity was great from the beginning and exactly what we were looking for.”

Before the game, Keelie Lawler and Kirby were named co-Intermountain League Player of the Year, and Shelby Starr, Tonkin, Lilly Kelley and Jacquelyn Mallet were also named to the all-league team. Miller was also named the league’s coach of the year.

Lawler scored 13 points and Kayle Jezek had 10 for Timberlake (20-2), which faces the winner of today’s state play-in game between Buhl and Teton in the opening round at state next Thursday at 5:15 p.m. PST at Middleton High.

“Leading into next week, we want to look and play as sharp as we can,” Miller said. “We looked sharp tonight. We were finding the open player on offense and making the right decisions on defense.”

Lawler had six steals for Timberlake, which won a third straight district title.

“Honestly, it’s hard to look into the future,” Lawler said. “We’ve been working toward this all year. It’s just one stepping stone to what we want to accomplish next week.”

Skeen scored 10 points for Bonners Ferry (9-9), which hosts Priest River for the district’s second berth to state tonight at 6.

“I recently moved here before taking this job and somebody had told me about Timberlake,” Bonners Ferry coach Rick Feickert said. “I went and watched them play Sandpoint and came away from that thinking those are the kind of players a coach wants to coach. They’re fundamentally a great team and he’s worked with them for years. We’re in good company with teams they’ve beat like that.”

Bonners Ferry 3 9 7 2 — 21

Timberlake 24 22 21 7 — 74

BONNERS FERRY — Cowley 0, Skeen 10, Spangler 4, Wenk 0, Bateman 2, Donn 5, Webster 0, Blackmore 0, Mullerschoen 2.

TIMBERLAKE — Tonkin 14, Kelley 4, Kronenberg 2, Mallet 5, Starr 6, Jezek 10, Kirby 14, Cheevers 4, Linehan 2, Bronson 0, Lawler 13.

Priest River 54, Kellogg 51: Melissa Krampert hit a 3-pointer with 30.2 seconds remaining to break a 51-all tie and send the fourth-seeded Spartans (7-15) past the second-seeded Wildcats in a loser-out game.

Krampert finished with 17 points. Abby Arthur scored 17 points for Kellogg (10-11).

Priest River 8 22 9 15 — 54

Kellogg 12 13 13 13 — 51

PRIEST RIVER — Hurd 11, Summers 12, Krampert 17, Kren 2, Martin 2, Akre 3, Dement 7.

KELLOGG — Arthur 17, Riekena 3, Rauenhorst 0, Cates 6, Senteny 9, Sheppard 2, Chambers 14, Figueroa 0.

ALL-INTERMOUNTAIN LEAGUE

CO-MVPs — Allison Kirby, sr., Timberlake; Keelie Lawler, sr., Timberlake

Shelby Starr, jr., Timberlake; McKeeley Tonkin, so., Timberlake; Lilly Kelley, jr., Timberlake; Jacquelyn Mallet, sr., Timberlake; Mae Alexander, sr., Coeur d’Alene Charter; Melissa Krampert, sr., Priest River; Averylynn Summers, sr., Priest River; Kadi Bateman, jr., Bonners Ferry; Abby Arthur, sr., Kellogg; Marley Chambers, sr., Kellogg.