St. Maries stumbles in opener of finals series
- GIRLS
GENESEE — The St. Maries Lumberjacks beat the Grangeville Bulldogs by 21 and 15 points during Central Idaho League play, but that apparently mattered little Wednesday night.
Second-seeded Grangeville shot 55.3 percent (26 of 47) from the field and surprised top-seeded St. Maries 64-56 in Game 1 of their best-of-3 2A District 1-2 championship series at Genesee High.
St. Maries (13-6) needs to win Game 2 tonight at 6 to force a Game 3 on Saturday at 3. Only the winner advances to state next week.
Paige Lindsley scored 15 points to lead three players into double figures for Grangeville (11-9).
“I think we were a step behind on defense,” St. Maries coach Jay Sines said. “They had a lot of open looks. We’ll have to do a better job defensively against them tomorrow.”
Kaci Haag had 17 points, 11 rebounds and four steals for St. Maries. Kaylee Auer added 15 points, nine rebounds and five steals, Devyn Wilson had 13 points and five steals, and Madison Cordell had eight points and seven assists.
St. Maries committed 28 turnovers, and shot 33 percent (17 of 51) from the field.
“We had a few more turnovers than usual, but overall we didn’t play that badly,” Sines said.
Grangeville 14 13 20 17 — 64
St. Maries 15 14 13 14 — 56
GRANGEVILLE — Hill 2, Lindsley 15, Deford 6, Lutz 7, Norman 12, Roberts 10, Ruzicka 4, Canaday 8.
ST. MARIES — Sines 0, Borgman 3, Haag 17, Cordell 8, Becktel 0, Wilson 13, Holder 0, Auer 15.
Sandpoint 56
Moscow 50
COEUR d’ALENE — The top-seeded Bulldogs (12-7) defeated the second-seeded Bears (8-11) in the Game 1 of a best-of-3 series for the 4A Region 1 title.
Game 2 is Friday in Sandpoint, and Game 3, if necessary, would be Saturday in Sandpoint.
ALL-4A INLAND EMPIRE LEAGUE
Coach of the Year — Duane Ward, Sandpoint
Most Valuable Player — Grace Kirscher, sr., Sandpoint
Newcomer of the Year — Melody Loutzenhiser, so., Lakeland
Ciera Bailey, sr., Sandpoint; Gracey Meyer, sr., Moscow; Hannah Broyles, jr., Moscow; Katie Kitchel, sr., Moscow; Sofi Schnepf, sr., Lakeland.
- BOYS
Lake City 60
Sandpoint 46
COEUR d’ALENE — James Carlson totaled 22 points, 12 rebounds and two blocked shots as the host Timberwolves defeated the Bulldogs in nonleague play.
Kyle Manzardo added 12 points, nine rebounds and four steals for Lake City (10-9). Hunter Schaffer had 11 points and four assists, and Kodie Kolden had 10 points and four assists.
“Offensively we executed pretty well, we just didn’t shoot the ball well,” Lake City assistant coach Kelly Reed said. “Nothing flashy; just kind of grinded it out.”
Robbie Johnson led Sandpoint (6-13) with 14 points, and Alex Stockton had nine points and 10 rebounds.
Lake City travels to Post Falls on Friday.
Sandpoint 10 10 13 13 — 46
Lake City 13 13 21 13 — 60
SANDPOINT — Vernon 6, Dalthorp 2, Niemela 0, Davis 5, Jones 0, Johnson 14, Casey 2, Stockton 9, Roos 8.
LAKE CITY — Schaffer 11, Kolden 10, Sensel 2, Carlson 22, Manzardo 12, Kiesbuy 3, Spellman 0, Irvin 0, Pollow 0.