STATE 1A BOYS BASKETBALL: Bummer, but hard-fought debut ... First-year IHSAA program Coeur du Christ battles before falling short to top-seeded Dietrich

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

CALDWELL – For the final 26 minutes, the eighth-seeded Coeur du Christ Saints didn’t flinch.

They fought back.

They battled.

They just fell short.

Senior Ben Connelly scored a game-high 22 points for the Saints of Coeur d'Alene, who fell to the top-seeded Dietrich Blue Devils 69-56 in the state 1A boys basketball tournament at Caldwell High, the first state appearance for the first-year full member of the Idaho High School Activities Association.

Coeur du Christ led 2-0 on a basket by Jerome Cools before Dietrich went on a 11-0 run in the first two minutes.

“I think the first four minutes was a rude awakening,” first-year Coeur du Christ coach Chris Kiefer said. “Dietrich is a good team and they’ve been playing a lot longer than we have. After that initial run, we started playing a lot better.”

Connelly hit four 3-pointers, three in the fourth quarter for the Saints (14-9), who beat Deary in a state play-in game last Saturday at Post Falls High. 

Coeur du Christ will face fourth-seeded Cascade (17-7) in a loser-out game tonight at 6 PST at Caldwell High.

Dietrich (20-3) faces fifth-seeded Garden Valley (20-8) in a semifinal game today.

“I thought we played with a good effort,” Connelly said. “We let them get ahead of us early and we fought as good as we could. They’ve got a lot of good shooters and were hitting difficult shots and shots that we were trying to force them to take. But they were making them. They’re a more all-around skilled team, but we gave it a good fight.”

Cools had 14 points, freshman Grant Clemens 12 points for Coeur du Christ, which shot 21 of 60 from the field.

“We had a game plan to come out and attack,” Kiefer said. “We took some poor, ill-advised 3s in the beginning of the game and that, coupled with some fast break lay-ins, and it just set us back.”

Connelly scored 14 points in the second half.

“Ben’s worked harder than anyone on our team for the entire season,” Kiefer said. “He’s bummed it’s his last year and so it hurts. It took a while to get going in a new gym, new environment and it was a bit of a tough start for him in the beginning.”

“It hurts and a bummer, but we’re the 12th-ranked team that snuck in,” Kiefer said. “And we played hard against the top-ranked team in the state. We’ll have to make the most of it in the cconsolation bracket.”

Connor Perkins scored 18 points and Brody Torgerson had 14 points and 19 rebounds for Dietrich, which shot 29 of 64 and had 19 second chance points.

“We did a good job of attacking the basket and drawing fouls in the second half,” Kiefer said. “Our whole philosophy is that we want good, high-efficiency shots. And we started to do that in the second half. Dietrich shot 45% for the game and we shot 35%, and it’s tough to win when you get outshot by 10%.”

Coeur du Christ    14    9    11    22    –    56

Dietrich        24    10    17    18    –    69

COEUR du CHRIST – Clemens 12, Connelly 22, Clute 0, Hayes 5, Je. Cools 14, O’Neil 3, Denke 0. Totals 21-60 9-11 56.

DIETRICH – Perkins 18, Torgerson 14, Norman 11, Resz 0, C. Hurtado 5, K. Torgerson 0, Denning 2, Shaw 0, Telford 0, Alvarado 8, Wells 11, M. Hurtado 0, Hoskisson 0. Totals 29-64 5-12 69.

    JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Coeur du Christ junior Greg Hayes (15) shoots in traffic vs. Dietrich in the first round of the state 1A boys basketball tournament Thursday at Caldwell High.