St. Maries was strong in more ways than one

The St. Maries High boys basketball team was considered a surprise when it reached the state 2A championship game in the Treasure Valley last weekend.

But maybe we should have seen this coming from the Lumberjacks.

Sure, they hadn’t played for a state title since 1987, but prior to this year, they had played in the semifinals at state each of the last four years, losing every year.

And only one of those games was even close.

In 2015, St. Maries lost to Soda Springs 59-55. Soda went on to lose to Firth 52-39 in the finals.

In 2016, St. Maries lost 58-26 to Firth.

In 2017, the Lumberjacks lost 59-41 to Ririe.

Last year, St. Maries lost 54-28 to Ririe.

BUT THE one constant St. Maries has had over the last five years at state has been a wealth of athletes.

Mostly multisport athletes, some of them basketball players first.

But always several of them.

And that came in handy in Friday’s semifinal game against Ririe, which relied on one or two players. The Lumberjacks had the athletes to take those two players away, and held Ririe to just 34 points in an eight-point victory.

Meanwhile, St. Maries had more scoring options, making it difficult for other teams to focus on stopping one or two players.

That depth in athleticism also came in handy in Saturday’s state title game, against North Fremont of Ashton under the bright lights (and the large crowd) at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.

Trailing by 10 at halftime, St. Maries stepped up its defense — a combination of athleticism and physicality — and even had a chance to win its first state title since 1960 in regulation, before falling to the Huskies in overtime.

North Fremont coach Shannon Hill said he was worried about St. Maries all season. Once he saw them in person at state, he was impressed with their physicality.

“That’s the way basketball is in the modern-day era,” he said.

One of those Lumberjacks who brought the physicality was 5-foot-10 guard Coy Sands, the bearded senior who, fittingly, recently signed a letter of intent to play football at NAIA Montana Western. The Lumberjacks have been a strong football program in recent years as well, a stretch which included a state title in 2016.

Bryan Chase, St. Maries’ fifth-year head coach, said all season Sands has been assigned to shutting down the other team’s best player.

In the first round, Sands held West Side guard Stockton Brown to 12 points. In the semis, he held Ririe point guard Lars Sutton to five.

In the title game, after North Fremont star Garrett Hawkes, a 6-3 inside/outside threat, scored 14 points in the first half, Sands held him to four points in the third and fourth quarters.

One week earlier, in the deciding game of the best-of-3 District 1-2 title series, Sands limited Trey Dreadfulwater of Grangeville to 12 points.

“He just works so hard on defense and takes a lot of pride in being a great defender,” Chase said. “Teams down south complimented us that they have never seen a team this physical. Coy definitely leads us in that attribute.”

SPEAKING OF physicality ...

The switch from two-man officiating crews to three-man mechanics at state was, in theory, supposed to clean up the play.

But, at least at the bigger-school levels, it’s still a rough game down south.

Not that the local coaches minded.

Not even after Post Falls’ state 5A semifinal loss to Madison of Rexburg, where a total of 45 fouls were called — 25 on Post Falls — and two Trojans fouled out.

“I prefer state tournament-style officiating,” said Post Falls coach Mike McLean, whose team ended up finishing third. “This is the way that I prefer. It’s much more advantage/disadvantage ... I would much rather it be physical, much rather it be this way. When we go play in Las Vegas ... in Reno ... in Seattle or Tacoma, this is how it’s played. The reality is, most places are officiated like this. In the regular season, things are called differently. It is what it is, but I prefer the physicality.”

In North Idaho, 5A and 4A teams have played many of their games with three-man officiating crews for a decade.

From 3A on down, it’s more of a new thing.

Kellogg coach Jeff Nearing, who played at Bonners Ferry High, was OK with the three-man crews at state.

“I think the refs, and rightly so, want the kids to figure it out; they don’t really want to be part of the action,” Nearing said. “I think as long as you have three quality officials, I like the three-man crews.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.