St. Maries locks down West Side

BOISE — For a fifth-straight year, the St. Maries is just 32 minutes from a berth in the 2A title game.

And for a third-straight time, Ririe stands in its way from getting there.

“We’ve had some chances in the last few years,” St. Maries coach Bryan Chase said. “We’ve just ran into a buzzsaw in that semifinal game.”

Kaden Hammond had 15 points, three rebounds and two assists for St. Maries in a 49-42 win over the West Side Pirates in the opening round of the state 2A tournament at Capital High in Boise on Thursday.

Eli Gibson had 13 points and eight rebounds for St. Maries (18-7), which faces Ririe (23-1) in the semifinals tonight at 7.

Stockton Brown scored 12 points for West Side (15-10).

“We hit some shots and played good defense again,” said Chase, whose team held West Side of 12 of 38 shooting. “We knew No. 10 (Stockton Brown) was their best player, and both Coy (Sands) and Kaden did a great job of locking him down. Kaden really made a lot of things happen on both ends of the court.”

St. Maries went 15 of 21 from the free-throw line.

West Side 9 9 8 16 — 42

St. Maries 10 14 9 16 — 49

WEST SIDE — Beckstead 7, S. Brown 12, B. Brown 2, Shurtliff 5, Robinson 9, Headworth 0, Gittins 0, Jak. Moser 0, Franklin 7. Totals 12-38 13-17 42.

ST. MARIES — Hill 0, Pritchard 7, Nelson 2, Lohman 2, Sands 6, Gibson 13, Hammond 15, Howard 4. Totals 16-39 15-23 49.

Sugar-Salem 60

Timberlake 26

MERIDIAN — Chase Gardom had 15 points and two blocked shots for the Tigers, who shot 2 for 10 in the second half of a loss to the Diggers of Sugar City in the opening round of the state 3A tournament at Meridian High.

Timberlake, which shot 8 for 14 in the first half, scored four points — all in the fourth quarter — in the second half.

“We were horrible in the second half,” first-year Timberlake coach Mike Menti said. “Between the shots not falling and turnovers, it was ugly. Chase was great, especially in the first quarter. And then everything disappeared. Give them credit, Sugar-Salem played with some great pressure, and we didn’t respond to it.”

Crew Clark scored 11 points for Sugar-Salem.

Timberlake (9-14) faces Parma (20-5) in a loser-out game today at 12:15 p.m. PST

Sugar-Salem (16-9) faces Kimberly (20-3) in a semifinal game tonight at 5:15.

Timberlake 11 11 0 4 — 26

Sugar-Salem 14 14 13 19 — 60

TIMBERLAKE — Menti 0, Yetter 0, Paslay 0, Cramer 0, Kluss 2, McDonald 2, James 5, Kistler 2, Gardom 15, Simpson 0, Dickinson 0. Totals 11-34 3-8 26.

SUGAR-SALEM — Clark 11, Harris 10, Drake 5, Ostermiller 0, Rihari 7, Miller 6, Bean 0, Parkinson 0, Warner 1, Blaser 6, Michaelson 0, Handy 6, Barr 8. Totals 24-50 6-7 60.

Marsh Valley 64

Kellogg 52

MERIDIAN — Raiden Rickets scored 11 points for the Wildcats in a loss to the Eagles in the opening round of the state 3A tournament at Meridian High.

Kellogg (9-14) faces Snake River (15-9) today at 2 p.m. in a loser-out game.

Marsh Valley 17 19 15 13 — 64

Kellogg 22 6 13 11 — 52

MARSH VALLEY — Marshall 12, Wissenbach 4, Campbell 18, Argyle 0, Egley 3, Howell 7, Hansen 0, McNabb 20. Totals 26-39 7-12 64.

KELLOGG — Waller 0, Rickets 11, Atkins 6, Oertli 0, Nearing 10, Miller 0, Davis 4, Jerome 10, Luna 11. Totals 19-44 8-14 52.