PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL: Students deliver the energy, Timberlake wins the game — and the Buck

SPIRIT LAKE — Playing its fourth game in as many days, you can excuse a little bit of a slow start for the Timberlake girls on Saturday.

As for the energy, the Tigers got a lot of help from their friends.

Senior McKennah Kronenberg had 16 of her 21 points in the first half for the Tigers, who beat the Priest River Spartans 56-23 in the Battle for the Buck spirit game on Saturday at Timberlake High.

Priest River led 7-5 early before Timberlake closed the first quarter on an 8-0 run.

“Having the crowd into the game definitely helped us,” Timberlake coach Matt Miller said. “We had kind of a sluggish start, but the energy of the crowd really helped us until we hit our stride in the second quarter. We started sharing the ball better.”

Jenna Chase scored 13 points for Timberlake, which also captured the Buck.

“Sometimes with the crowd, you can get a little impatient on offense,” Miller said. “We started settling into the game after six minutes and started passing up good shots for great shots.”

Timberlake (10-4, 3-0 IML) travels to St. Maries on Tuesday.

Lilly Freitas scored 12 points for Priest River (3-8, 0-3), which hosts Bonners Ferry on Friday.

Priest River 7 4 7 5 — 23

Timberlake 13 20 13 10 — 56

PRIEST RIVER — Burgess-Duquette 0, Pound 10, Freitas 12, Thompson 0, Humphrey 0, McCracken 0, Kingery 0, Barton 1.

TIMBERLAKE — Soumas 6, Webberley 2, Kronenberg 21, MacArthur 4, Wall 5, Osanai 0, Needs 5, Nelson 0, Patrick 0, Chase 13.

Grangeville 65

St. Maries 11

GRANGEVILLE — The host Bulldogs, ranked No. 2 in 2A, forced 34 turnovers en route to the Central Idaho League victory over the Lumberjacks.

Camden Barger scored 16 points, Mattie Thacker 13 for Grangeville (12-3, 2-0 CIL).

“I would say they’re the best team we’ll play this year,” St. Maries coach Gary Krumheuer.

Brenna Elliott scored three points for St. Maries (0-11, 0-2), which plays host to Timberlake on Tuesday.

St. Maries 5 2 0 4 — 11

Grangeville 20 15 16 14 — 65

ST. MARIES — Elliott 3, Spray 0, McGreal 1, Janssen 2, Rimel 0, Baird 2, Watkins 2, Mitchell 1, Asbury 0, Sloper 0.

GRANGEVILLE — Barger 16, Anderson 2, Frei 12, Smith 8, Dame 0, C. Green 2, Thacker 13, Lefebvre 7, M. Green 0, Vanderwall 6.

Heritage Christian at North Idaho Christian, noon.