St. Maries finds its way to state

TROY — St. Maries coach Bryan Chase knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

And despite Grangeville’s best efforts, the Lumberjacks found a way to advance to the state 2A tournament.

Jackson Pritchard scored a team-high 17 points for St. Maries in a 64-56 win over Grangeville to close out the 2A District 1-2 championship series at Troy High on Thursday.

St. Maries won its fourth straight district title.

“We kind of figured it wasn’t going to be easy,” said Chase, who coached St. Maries to a third-place finish at state in 2017. “But we just found a way to win in the end.”

St. Maries (17-4) opens at state against Nampa Christian (16-6), the District 3 runner-up, on Thursday at 7 p.m. PST at Capital High in Boise.

Pritchard hit a pair of 3-pointers to tie the game at 22 before halftime. St. Maries outscored Grangeville 25-8 in the third quarter.

“We finally got the tempo in our favor,” Chase said. “They used a 1-3-1 zone in the first half, and we didn’t knock down many shots.”

St. Maries finished 26 of 38 from the free-throw line.

Dan Howard had 14 points and eight rebounds and Kaden Hammond had 10 points and four assists for St. Maries.

Blake Darr scored 18 points for Grangeville, which finishes 15-7.

Grangeville 10 12 8 26 — 56

St. Maries 11 11 25 17 — 64

GRANGEVILLE — Darr 18, Norman 4, Kennedy 14, Schoo 6, Frei 2, Vanderwal 8, Kaschmitter 4.

ST. MARIES — Duffield 6, Lohman 1, Sands 7, Pritchard 17, Buell 9, Hammond 10, Howard 14.