St. Maries battles back, earns state 2A tourney berth
GENESEE — You can forget that slip up from Wednesday night now.
Kaci Haeg scored 19 points and Madison Cordell had 17 points, six steals and six assists to lead St. Maries past the Grangeville Bulldogs 66-47 in game three of the best-of-3 2A District 1-2 championship series at Genesee High on Saturday, to advance to the state tournament for the second straight year.
St. Maries lost the first game 64-56 on Wednesday, then beat Grangeville 52-45 to forced the deciding game.
“We hit some shots in the third quarter and took a little bit of a lead,” St. Maries coach Jay Sines said. “Grangeville was trying to be more aggressive on defense, but we were able to run the fast break and get some easy baskets.”
St. Maries (15-6) opens at state against Cole Valley Christian (17-4) on Thursday at Kuna High at 7 p.m. PST.
Paige Lindsley scored 17 points for Grangeville, which finishes 11-11.
Grangeville 11 7 11 18 — 47
St. Maries 13 10 18 25 — 66
GRANGEVILLE — Hill 2, Lindsley 17, DeFord 0, Z. Lutz 0, K. Lutz 6, Norman 11, Roberts 0, Ruzicka 6, Canaday 5.
ST. MARIES — Sines 7, Borgman 0, Haeg 19, Cordell 17, Hill 0, Becktel 3, Wilson 7, Holder 0, Hammond 0, Auer 13, Koser 0.
Prairie 57
Wallace 14
POST FALLS — The Miners saw their season end with a loss to the Pirates in a state 1A Division I play-in game at The Arena.
Wallace, seeking its first trip to state since 2008, finishes 6-16.
Josie Peery scored 15 points for Prairie (22-2), which opens against Rimrock (18-5) on Thursday at Columbia High in Nampa.
Prairie, ranked No. 1 in the final Idaho media poll, lost to third-ranked Lapwai in the District 2 championship game.
Prairie 17 12 20 8 — 57
Wallace 1 2 4 7 — 14
PRAIRIE — Hiler 2, Peery 15, J. Higgins 7, Ross 2, L. Higgins 7, Tidwell 2, T. Wemhoff 4, Krogh 2, Bruner 8, I. Peery 7, Chaffee 0, Duclos 0.
WALLACE — Oertli 4, Krous 5, Hayman 5, Garitone 0, Hill 0, Sheppard 0, Morin 0, Corey 0, Bayer 0, Johnson 0, Howard 0.
The Oaks 38
N.I. Christian 33
PULLMAN — The Royals pulled within three points of the league champs in the fourth quarter and had a 3-poiner for the tie rim out, and The Oaks went on to hold off North Idaho Christian in the championship game of the Mountain Christian League tournament at Pullman Christian.
Mary Schlader had eight points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots for North Idaho Christian, which finished 18-10. Riley Anderson led the Royals with nine points.
Rachael Schlect scored a game-high 17 points for The Oaks.
N.I. Christian 5 7 6 15 — 33
The Oaks 6 8 13 11 — 38
NORTH IDAHO CHRISTIAN — Monaghan 0, Hines 1, Parks 6, Knight 0, Gwin 3, Anderson 9, Ward 0, Bresee 2, Schlader 8, Seeley 4, Aittama 0.
THE OAKS — Sevem 7, Netjes 13, Schlect 17, Love 2, Mannan 2, Modderman 2, Palplant 0, Sattler 0, Kolarsky 0.