A good day for the north down south
“It’s a good day to be a Runnin’ Jaguar.”
One more win against Dietrich this morning, and it will be a great one.
IN CASE you missed it, the north had four teams advance to semifinal games — five if you’re counting Lewiston in 5A — in the state boys basketball tournaments with Genesis Prep — in only its second year as an Idaho High School Actitivies Association-sanctioned program — rolling past Carey to advance to the championship game at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.
A little later on Friday, St. Maries (2A), Post Falls (5A) and Kellogg (3A) took to the court in semifinal games hoping to join them in the quest for a state title.
Back a few weeks ago, Genesis Prep boys basketball coach Marsell Colbert addressed members of the Genesis Prep girls basketball team after they’d advanced to state for the first time in program history by capturing the 1A Division II District 1 championship. In that message, he told members of the girls team, as well as some of the students from Genesis Prep that made the trip to Spirit Lake to watch the game, “‘It’s a good day to be a Runnin’ Jaguar.”
In Thursday’s 81-55 win over Butte County, Genesis Prep had three players in double figures scoring — Junior Williams with 19, Jonny Hillman with 17 and Stephane Manzi with 16 — and two more that came very close to joining them.
“We’ve just got to continue to spread the ball around,” Colbert said. “That’s the name of the game anyway.”
And while it didn’t quite show up on the stat sheet, Jacob Schultz played a key role defensively, Colbert added, as the Jaguars held Butte County to 18 of 54 from the field.
“Jacob played a huge role and played some great defense and was rewarded on the offensive end,” Colbert said. “It was just a great team win tonight.”
Another 32 minutes like they’ve played so far this week, and it might a great weekend for the program.
WHILE THEY haven’t played a single regular season game yet, and won’t for another month, you can’t help but be encouraged a little bit by the start by the Seattle Mariners this spring.
In previous years, the team has struggled to score runs, which is something that looked corrected in a hurry with more than 10 runs in the team’s first two games in Arizona.
Entering Friday, the team was 5-1 in the practice games and will lose a handful of players to the World Baseball Classic in the coming days, so chances are you’ll see some guys in the lineup that might be shining in Tacoma, Everett or for someone else at Safeco Field this summer.
The biggest problem the team has had in recent years has been finding the consistency early in the season and falling into a bit of a hole early on. Having six games in its first 10 against Houston might not help this year, but it could also be a good thing, should this offensive surge continue when the team heads north at the end of the month.
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.