Timberlake, St. Maries punch tickets to state

SPIRIT LAKE — Two days after losing the district title on a four-point play with 1.1 seconds left, the Timberlake Tigers bounced back indeed.

Dylan Kluss scored 17 points and top-seeded Timberlake toppled third-seeded Bonners Ferry 59-52 in the 3A District 1 second-place game on Saturday to send the Tigers back to state for the third straight season.

“They came out ready to go,” Timberlake coach Mike Menti said. “We played great defense.”

Timberlake (9-14) will open state against District 6 champion Sugar-Salem (15-9) on Thursday at 12:15 p.m. at Meridian High.

Jacob James and Sheldon Kistler each added 14 points for the Tigers. And Menti praised the defense of James, in particular, in holding Seth Bateman of Bonners Ferry, the Intermountain League MVP, to 14 points — three in the first half. Bateman scored 33 in a win at Timberlake in league play.

“We worked hard to limit his touches,” Menti said.

Bonners Ferry finished 10-12.

Bonners Ferry 10 11 15 16 — 52

Timberlake 11 15 20 13 — 59

BONNERS FERRY — Hines 0, S. Bateman 14, T. Bateman 0, Hittle 17, Durette 6, Peterson 0, Stockton 11, Foster 2, Morgan 2.

TIMBERLAKE — Cramer 4, Kluss 17, McDonald 0, James 14, Kistler 14, Gardom 9, Dickinson 1.

St. Maries 50

Grangeville 45

TROY — St. Maries coach Bryan Chase felt that if his team could control the pace, it would find a way back to the state 2A tournament.

Done and done.

Jackson Pritchard scored 20 points, including two free-throws with 14 seconds remaining to push the second-seeded Lumberjacks past the top-seeded Bulldogs to win the deciding game of a best-of-3 game 2A District 1-2 tournament at Troy High.

St. Maries (17-7) opens at state against West Side (15-9) on Thursday at 5:15 p.m. PST at Capital High in Boise. It is the Lumberjacks’ fifth consecutive trip to state, all under Chase.

“It was something else,” St. Maries coach Bryan Chase said. “We got down 10 points early in the third quarter, but had some weird plays and got back into it. We were a little nervous coming into the game, but our kids’ desire and will to come back was something else.”

St. Maries held Grangeville to four field goals in the second half. Tyler Lohman had nine points and nine rebounds and Eli Gibson six rebounds and three assists for St. Maries.

“Grangeville is such a good team,” Chase said. “They’re loaded from top to bottom, and we knew we’d have to grind it out with them. We thought if we could slow it down and grind it out, we’d have a chance and that’s what it came down to.”

Blake Darr scored 16 points, Trey Dreadfulwater 11 for Grangeville, which finishes 18-5.

St. Maries 13 12 13 12 — 50

Grangeville 16 16 8 5 — 45

ST. MARIES — Hill 0, Pritchard 20, Nelson 2, Lohman 9, Sands 3, Gibson 7, Hammond 6, Howard 3.

GRANGEVILLE — Dreadfulwater 11, Darr 16, Kennedy 7, Anderson 5, Vanderwall 4, Frei 2, Kaschmitter 0.