A little short for St. Maries

KUNA — When they started to push on the gas, the St. Maries Lumberjacks took off in the second quarter to gain a 25-18 halftime lead.

But as they shot 10 of 28 from the field in the second half, and 21 of 65 for the game, the Lumberjacks ran out of steam late, falling to the Cole Valley Christian Chargers 54-49 in a state 2A girls tournament opening-round game at Kuna High on Thursday.

“We had our shots and I thought we played pretty well,” St. Maries coach Jay Sines said. “We just didn’t make a couple of shots toward the end of the game that we normally do. They’re a tough team, and they’ve got a lot of height, and it’s something we haven’t seen this year. I thought our girls made the adjustment, but let them get some easy buckets underneath, but overall, it was a good performance.”

St. Maries (15-7) will face Malad (17-8) in a loser-out game today at 2 p.m. PST. Cole Valley Christian (18-4) will face Ririe (21-4) in the late semifinal game.

“I told the kids to keep their heads up,” Sines said. “We played a really good game and kept our turnovers down. I told them, ‘let’s go play for the consolation championship. There’s no shame in that.’”

Madison Cordell had 18 points and six rebounds and Kaci Haeg 10 points and 12 rebounds for St. Maries.

Holly Golenor, a 6-foot post, had 18 points and 13 rebounds and Madeline Cook, a 6-3 post, finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds for Cole Valley Christian.

“Kaci did a really good job, but she’s not used to having to get over those larger kids,” Sines said. “It was tough. She’s 5-foot-8, or she says she’s 5-8 and she’s going against a legitimate 6-foot-3 girl, it’s tough to shoot over the top of them. We’ve just got to adjust and find a way to score over them. Madison did a great job of getting to the basket and she’s going to be key for us getting to the basket if we want to keep playing.”

Cordell cut the deficit to 50-47 with 53.4 seconds remaining, but Cole Valley scored six straight to put the game out of reach.

“We played our hearts out, but they had a really good high/low that we couldn’t handle,” Haeg said. “We’ve got to come back tomorrow and know we’ve got to play with all we’ve got.”

C.V. Christian 10 8 18 18 — 54

St. Maries 7 18 12 12 — 49

COLE VALLEY CHRISTIAN — Olson 2, Kazarinoff 0, Hahs 11, Khoury 8, McClure 0, Cooke 15, Golenor 18. Totals 22-50 10-14 54.

ST. MARIES — Sines 0, Borgman 2, Haeg 10, Cordell 18, Becktel 0, Wilson 7, Auer 12. Totals 21-65 6-16 49.