PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: Sandpoint falls; coin flip to decide seeding in 3A tourney

MOSCOW — Moscow outscored Sandpoint 31-16 in the second half to roll to a 61-38 4A Inland Empire League victory over the Bulldogs on Saturday at Bear Den in the regular-season finale for both teams.

With the win, the Bears (5-8, 2-2 4A IEL) locked up the second seed to the 4A Region 1 tournament and will host No. 3 Sandpoint (4-15, 0-4) at 6 p.m. Monday in a loser-out game. The winner will advance to face No. 1 Lakeland in the best-of-3 regional championship series starting Wednesday.

"From the get-go we didn't really seem fired up to be there," Sandpoint interim head coach Mike Roos said. "I know it's a long bus ride down, but we just really didn't have that second gear tonight and again we were struggling with getting shots to fall."

Colin Roos led the Bulldogs with 11 points.

The Bulldogs finish winless in league play for the fifth straight season and are currently on a nine-game losing streak.

Tyler Skinner scored a game-high 18 points for Moscow.

On Monday, Mike Roos said his team needs to play like their season is on the line.

"We need to come in there with our heads up and be ready to play," he said. "I thought some guys tonight weren't mentally prepared to play, so that's something we need to work on as a team is to come in there with a good attitude, smiling and be excited to be in the situation."

Sandpoint 10 12 5 11 — 38

Moscow 11 19 11 20 — 61

SANDPOINT — Roos 11, Pettit 2, Frank 3, R. Lee 2, Eldridge 0, VanDenBerg 5, Bailey 3, S. Lee 7, Lane 4, Butler 1.

MOSCOW — Brown 3, Simpson 4, Abendroth 5, Kees 9, Reheder 5, Isakson 0, Larson 2, Colter 8, Hong 2, Kitchel 5, Skinner 18.

Bonners Ferry 78

Priest River 77 (OT)

PRIEST RIVER — Sophomore Blake Rice hit one of two free throws with 7.4 seconds left in overtime and Priest River missed a game-winning shot on the other end as Bonners Ferry took down Intermountain League champion Priest River 78-77 on Saturday night.

"That was an exciting game to end the regular season going into districts," Bonners Ferry coach Nathan Williams said. "It was a game that we really needed to get our momentum back going into districts. We had some kids step up and shoot great and the main thing is we played great team defense when we needed to."

The Badgers led by as many as 10 points in the fourth quarter, but the Spartans battled back and missed a jumper as time expired in regulation that would have won the game.

Ridge Williams led Bonners Ferry with 23 points and five 3-pointers. Rice added 18 points and eight rebounds, Hayden Stockton had 14 points and four assists and Braeden Blackmore tallied 12 points and nine rebounds.

Blake Barrett led Priest River with 23 points, three assists and three rebounds. Trentyn Kreager racked up 11 points, five rebounds and four assists, Jordan Nortz poured in 13 and Teigan Marinello added 12.

With the win, Bonners Ferry (8-7, 3-3 IML) forces a coin-flip tiebreaker today with Kellogg (9-7, 3-3 IML) for the No. 2 seed to the 3A District 1 tournament that starts on Monday.

No. 1 seed Priest River (12-8, 4-2 IML) will host No. 4 Timberlake (7-13, 2-4 IML) in the first round of the district tourney at 6 p.m. Monday.

Bonners Ferry 22 12 16 17 11 — 78

Priest River 12 16 21 18 10 — 77

BONNERS FERRY — Williams 23, Petersen 2, Rice 18, Henslee 3, Stockton 14, Hubbard 2, Mai 2, Beazer 2, Blackmore 12.

PRIEST RIVER — Mathews 8, Butler 2, Nortz 13, Kreager 11, Marinello 12, Barrett 23, Thompson 0, Yount 8.