PREP BASKETBALL: Post Falls boys advance to title game

• BOYS

MIDDLETON — Isaac Ballew hit 4 of 7 3-pointers — three of those in the second quarter — and scored 14 points for the Post Falls Trojans on Friday night.

But it was the defense of Ballew and the rest of the Trojans that was just as vital in Post Falls’ 60-51 victory over Madison of Rexburg on Friday in the semifinals of the Ridley’s Christmas Tournament at Middleton High.

Taden King of Madison (5-2), who scored 30 points in a win over Vallivue of Caldwell on Thursday, was held to three field goals against Post Falls, finishing with 17 points.

“Isaac did a great job defensively on the King kid,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “We rotated three guys on him (Tommy Hauser and Jaxon Anderson being the other two), and Isaac set the tone.”

Post Falls (2-0) will play tournament host Middleton today at 1:45 p.m. PST in the championship game. Middleton defeated Lake City 65-64 in the other semifinal.

Alex Horning led Post Falls with 15 points, and Caden McLean added 10. Cole Rutherford scored eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter. With 57.4 seconds left, he hit two free throws, then stole a pass in the frontcourt and went coast-to-coast for a layup and a six-point Trojan lead.

“They saw the pattern,” McLean said of Rutherford and Caden McLean. “That’s what we teach our kids — read and react, and go make the play. Cole made a great play.”

Post Falls trailed by two after three quarters, then held Madison without a field goal in the fourth.

“Sometimes people overlook us defensively,” McLean said. “When we get locked in … we were pretty good tonight.”

Madison beat Post Falls last December in Rexburg, and beat the Trojans the year before in the state 5A semis.

“We remembered,” McLean said. “We signed up for this tournament in part because of Madison.”

Post Falls 13 15 10 22 — 60

Madison 11 13 16 11 — 51

POST FALLS — Anderson 0, McLean 10, Hauser 0, Rodriguez 3, Rutherford 10, Ballew 14, Sciortino 0, Lee 8, Horning 15.

MADISON — Crane 0, Lerwill 7, Hathaway 7, Wilson 6, Pierce 7, King 17, Randall 7.

Middleton 65

Lake City 64

MIDDLETON — Lake City led by 11 points at halftime, only to see the host team battle back to take an eight-point lead with just over a minute remaining.

The Timberwolves responded, and had a couple shots to tie or win in the final seconds in the semifinal loss to the Vikings at the Ridley’s Christmas Tournament.

“They got hot, went on a run. We answered, came up a little short,” Lake City coach Jim Winger said.

Kolton Mitchell scored 12 of his game-high 27 points in the fourth quarter for Lake City (4-1), which will play Madison (5-2) of Rexburg in the third-place game today at noon PST. Mitchell hit four 3-pointers, and also had four assists.

Blake Buchanan totaled 11 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots for Lake City, which led 37-26 at halftime.

Tyler Medaris, a 6-7 junior, scored 21 points for Middleton, which outscored the T-Wolves 36-17 in the first 14-plus minutes after the break.

“That Medaris kid, he’s tough. I’m just not real happy with myself,” Winger said, noting some coaching moves, in retrospect, he wished he’d made.

Jack Kiesbuy added 11 points for Lake City. Taede Stucki hit four 3s and finished with 12 points for Middleton.

Lake City 21 16 11 16 — 64

Middleton 14 12 23 16 — 65

LAKE CITY — Buchanan 11, Janke 0, Irvin 2, Kiesbuy 11, Spellman 0, Johnson 5, Mitchell 27, Meredith 8.

MIDDLETON — Toole 3, Wright 10, Graviet 10, Stucki 12, Medaris 21, Hansen 5, Day 3, McKnight 1.

St. Maries 47

Bonners Ferry 34

BONNERS FERRY — Down two starters, the Lumberjacks turned up the tempo on both the offensive and defensive end to beat the Badgers in a nonleague game.

Eli Gibson had 13 points, four rebounds and two assists, Randi Becktel five points, five rebounds and two assists for St. Maries, which held Bonners Ferry to one field goal in the first quarter.

“We got into our press early and turned them over,” said St. Maries coach Bryan Chase, who was without starters Brett Stancil (illness) and Tristan Gentry (injury). “The kids did a good job of pushing the tempo. In the second half, Bonners Ferry came out fired up and their pressure got to us a little bit.”

Greyson Sands and Coleman Ross scored 10 points each for St. Maries (4-0), which travels to Sandpoint on Jan. 2.

Braeden Blackmore scored 10 points for Bonners Ferry (2-3), which hosts Sandpoint tonight at 7.

St. Maries 18 11 10 8 — 47

Bonners Ferry 3 6 8 7 — 34

ST. MARIES — Sands 10, Wolfe 0, Ross 10, Becktel 5, Badgett 2, Elliott 2, Wicks 0, Gibson 13, T. Renner 0, Ledbetter 0, C. Renner 5, Hill 0, McMaster 0.

BONNERS FERRY — Williams 3, Peterson 0, Rice 5, Hensley 4, Stockton 0, Hubbard 0, Regan 8, Mai 0, Bateman 4, Blackmore 10.

North Idaho Christian at Priest River tournament.

• GIRLS

Post Falls JV 57

Lakeside 38

PLUMMER — It might have been a nonleague game, but it was a game that Lakeside coach Chris Dohrman was quick to call one of the tougher matchups his team will face this season.

Laetitia Asper scored five of her game-high 14 points in the fourth quarter as Trojans junior varsity beat the Knights at Ron Miller Court.

“They were ahead by 10 points in the first half, but we did a good job of closing the gap before halftime,” Dohrman said. “In the second half, we just had trouble finishing and scoring and they slowly pulled away. We just didn’t finish on offense and made too many mistakes. We didn’t shoot as well as we normally do and went 5 for 27 on 3-pointers, so that was probably too many.”

Jolissa Holt scored 12 points for Lakeside (3-4), which plays at Timberlake today at 3 p.m.

Kaliah Frazey scored 10 points for the Post Falls JV, which has beaten Kellogg and Wallace’s varsity team this season.

“They’re a quick team and it was good competition for us,” Dohrman said. “They were a little bigger than us, but their quickness really hurt us. They got a lot of points in transition off of our turnovers.”

Post Falls JV 13 12 14 18 — 57

Lakeside 11 13 7 7 — 38

POST FALLS JV — Furr 4, Flerchinger 2, Brennan 7, Berg 8, McLean 7, Asper 14, SiJohn 3, Mauer 2, Frazey 10.

LAKESIDE — A. Holt 0, Gorr 7, J. Holt 12, Twoteeth 10, Riviera 0, Peters 5, Marchand 0, Allen 4.

N.I. Christian 46

Post Falls C 8

PRIEST RIVER — Freshman Symone Pilgrim had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Royals in a win over the Trojan C team in the Priest River Christmas Tournament.

Danica Kelly had six assists and five steals for North Idaho Christian (7-2), which faces Priest River in the championship game tonight at 5.

Johna Taylor scored four points for the Post Falls C, which faces Clark Fork today at 3:30 p.m.

Post Falls C 0 2 3 3 — 8

N.I. Christian 11 13 10 12 — 46

POST FALLS C — Daniels 0, Fortune 0, Brodrick 3, Dunlap 0, Conijn 1, Taylor 4, Miller 0, Lozier 0.

NORTH IDAHO CHRISTIAN — Monaghan 2, Kelly 2, Garn 2, Pilgrim 11, Gwin 3, H. Malinauskas 3, Daigle 4, Nelson 2, K. Malinauskas 9, Connelly 2, Overturf 6.

• POSTPONEMENT

Today’s Moscow at Lake City girls game was postponed due to COVID-19.

No makeup date has been announced.