Talk about a second half
BOISE — After scoring just 12 points in the first half of their state tournament opener, the St. Maries Lumberjacks broke loose for 21 points in the third quarter alone.
A little touch of state inexperience?
Could be. After all, the Lumberjack boys returned just two players from last year’s third-place finishers at state — and they saw limited minutes off the bench.
Or maybe the Lumberjacks just needed something to get their competitive juices flowing.
Whatever it was, it worked as St. Maries started strong in the third period and held off a late charge by Nampa Christian for a 50-39 victory in a state 2A first-round game Thursday night at Capital High.
“Me and (one of the Nampa Christian players) were talking trash, and I just thought I should score,” said St. Maries senior post Glover Buell, one of the two returning players, who scored his team’s first five points of the third quarter, as well as its last five as the Lumberjacks opened up a 14-point lead late in the quarter. “And we just went on a big run.”
We won’t get into specifics, other than to say Buell scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half, and also had eight rebounds.
“Thank god he took over,” St. Maries coach Bryan Chase said. “He did that at districts, too. It was nice to see him put the team on his back when we needed him to.”
St. Maries (18-4) will play Ririe (21-3) in a state semifinal game tonight at 7 p.m. PST. Ririe lost many of its key players from last year’s state title team — though wasn’t hit as hard by graduation by the Lumberjacks.
Ririe beat Aberdeen 49-47.
Junior guard Jackson Pritchard, the other varsity returnee, scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half for St. Maries, including a pair of 3-pointers in that third-quarter run.
Nampa Christian (16-7) pulled within 40-37 on a three-point play by Justus Wiles, a junior guard who led the Trojans with 11 points.
At the other end, senior Kevin Duffield — who took only two shots in the game — hoisted up a 3-pointer that went in, and the Trojans never came within one possession the rest of the game.
“That’s probably not the shot we were looking for,” Chase said, diplomatically. “But he’s been shooting the ball pretty well lately, and had a real good week of practice, so I don’t ever put the brakes on until needed with these guys.”
Nampa Christian shot just 25 percent (12 of 48) from the field. St. Maries shot 32.6 percent (14 of 43).
St. Maries shot just 26.3 percent (5 of 19) from the field in the first half, scored just two points in the second quarter, and were likely fortunate to be tied at halftime.
“I don’t know if it was nerves; none of these guys have played a lot at the state tournament before,” Chase said. “In the second half we got loose, and it seemed like we were having some fun out there. We got the tempo back where we wanted it. We thought it might be a track meet, and we thought we could get up and down the floor and wear down their bigs.”
Nampa Christian 7 5 10 17 — 39
St. Maries 10 2 21 17 — 50
NAMPA CHRISTIAN — MacDonald 0, Ihli 0, Williams 0, Weathers 4, Clark 1, Renschler 0, Miller 3, Rhodes 10, Wiles 11, Carson 10, Banderwoude 0. Totals 12-48 14-26 39.
ST. MARIES — Gibson 2, Basset 0, Duffield 3, Green 0, Lohman 1, Sands 0, Pritchard 19, Buell 19, Hammond 2, Powers 4. Totals 14-43 15-30 50.