Timberlake wins, to play for state berth

KELLOGG — The top two teams in the Intermountain League split their first two meetings ... and after winning their district openers, will break the tie on Wednesday night with a trip to the state tournament on the line.

Kellogg and Timberlake won 3A District 1 semifinals Monday night at Kellogg High School, and will meet at 7 in the district championship Wednesday, also at Kellogg High.

The Tigers used stout defense and strong exeuction in the fourth quarter to pull away from Bonners Ferry for a 53-40 win in Monday night’s second game, after Kellogg handily won the opener over Priest River.

“Our defense was great. We weren’t shooting the ball very well, but we executed on defense and that carried us tonight,” Timberlake coach Mike Menti said. “Wyatt Dickinson had a couple of steals and key defensive stops for us.”

Led by the scoring of Jacob James (14 points), Zach Yetter (11 points) and Jack McDonald (10 points), the Tigers led 30-20 at halftime, only to see the Badgers cut the lead to five after the third quarter.

“At that point, we did a good job of taking care of the ball, and played good defense to hold them to seven points in the fourth quarter,” Menti said.

Braeden Blackmore led the Badgers (7-13) with 12 points.

Bonners Ferry 10 10 13 7 — 40

Timberlake 12 18 8 15 — 53

BONNERS FERRY — Hines 5, Williams 3, Bateman 6, Stockton 4, Hubbard 2, Rice 0, Mai 2, Petersen 3, Blackmore 12, Morgan 3.

TIMBERLAKE — Peightal 3, Menti 6, Higgins 0, Paslay 2, Yetter 11, McDonald 10, James 14, Dickerson 7.

Kellogg 73, Priest River 39: The top-seeded Wildcats shut down the visiting Spartans, opening a double-digit lead in the first quarter and a commanding 39-10 advantage at halftime.

“Defensively, we looked really good in the first half,” Kellogg coach Jeff Nearing said.

Graden Nearing had 22 points, five assists and three steals for the Wildcats (15-6), with Gavin Luna adding 14 points and nine rebounds.

Caden Brennan led Priest River (4-15) with 16 points. The Spartans and Badgers square off in a loser-out game at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Kellogg High School.

Priest River 4 6 15 14 — 39

Kellogg 21 18 14 20 — 73

PRIEST RIVER — Matthews 2, Butler 0, Hahn 11, Bell 0, Lucas 8, Brennan 16, Thompson 2, Yount 0.

KELLOGG — Bush 4, R. Luna 5, K. Luna 3, Oertli 8, Groves 2, Nearing 22, Miller 4, Saijo-Walker 2, Jerome 9, G. Luna 14, Hoffman 0.

Class 2A

St. Maries 39, Grangeville 30

TROY — A strong defensive effort ... and maybe a little luck ... helped the top-seeded Lumberjacks win their opener over the Bulldogs in a best-of-three series to determing the District 1-2 champion.

St. Maries (16-5) led 23-13 at halftime, and when Grangeville cut the lead to 29-26 early in the fourth quarter, Lumberjacks junior Randie Becktel banked in a 3-pointer from the corner to help his team recover its momentum, coach Bryan Chase said.

“We’ll take a little bit of luck this time of year,” Chase said of the 3-pointer.

Eli Gibson helped the Lumberjacks close out the game with four straight free throws down the stretch.

Bechtel had 10 points, four rebounds and three assists for St. Maries, which faces Grangeville (10-10) again tonight at 6 at Troy High School. A St. Maries win clinches the district title and a state berth; a loss means a deciding game 3 on Wednesday night.

Tristan Gentry grabbed five rebounds and Gibson had six points and four steals for the Lumberjacks, while Kyle Frei led the Bulldogs with eight points.

Grangeville 8 5 9 8 — 30

St. Maries 13 10 6 10 — 39

GRANGEVILLE — Lefebre 6, Schoo 2, Anderson 7, K. Frei 8, Ebert 2, C. Frei 0, J. Lindsley 3, D. Lindsley 2.

ST. MARIES — Sands 4, Ross 6, Becktel 10, Gentry 4, Stancil 5, Peet 0, Gibson 6, Renner 4.

Class 1A Division II

Clark Fork 53, Kootenai 19

CLARK FORK — Clark Fork boys basketball is on to the district semifinals after taking care of visiting Kootenai 53-19 on Monday night in a 1A Division II District 1 loser-out game.

Now the Wampus Cats (6-13) face the daunting task of trying to take down No. 1 seed Lakeside (19-0) at 6 tonight at North Idaho College.

“Lakeside’s undefeated for a reason and we have to be on our A game, not our B, C or D game,” Clark Fork coach Heath Beason said about tonight’s game. “We definitely have to have no faults to be able to even have a chance. The way I look at it is, everybody’s 0-0.”

In the game against the Warriors, Clark Fork was in cruise control from the opening tip. The team took a commanding 17-0 lead right out of the gate.

Junior Cameron Garcia had 10 points in the opening quarter as the Wampus Cats built a 24-3 advantage after one.

The Warriors warmed up in the second quarter and Clark Fork turned the ball over six times which allowed Kootenai to outscore them 13-10 in the quarter. But the Wampus Cats expanded their lead in the third quarter to wrap up the victory.

Senior Garrett Renner scored 15 points to lead the Warriors (0-15).

Josh Constantin finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds for Clark Fork, the fourth seed in the district tournament. Tonight’s other semifinal, No. 2-seeded Mullan (8-6) vs. No. 3 Genesis Prep (10-8), tips off at 7:30 at NIC.

Kootenai 3 13 3 0 — 19

Clark Fork 24 10 15 4 — 53

KOOTENAI — Brewster 0, G. Hysell 2, D. Hysell 0, Anderson 0, Renner 15, Zavala 0, Coppa 2.

CLARK FORK — Garcia 16, Bailey 0, J. Bopp 0, P. Bopp 2, San Roman 2, Reuter 2, Matsutaro 0, Constantin 21, Shelton 2, Steele 2, Abbott 6.