Bears, Badgers Advance To Final

Defense vaulted Moscow into Friday night’s A-2 District I-II girls’ basketball tournament championship game, as the Bears derailed St. Maries 51-29 in Wednesday’s late game at Post Falls High School.

Second-half teamwork spurred Bonners Ferry past Kellogg, 42-37, in the opener. The win was the 10th in a row for the Badgers.

That sets up a rematch of last year’s district finale between Moscow (14-7 overall) and Bonners Ferry (15-6). Game time is 7:30 p.m.

The champion gains an automatic berth in the Feb. 9-11 state tournament in Meridian. The loser returns Saturday afternoon to take on the survivor of Friday’s 6:15 p.m. loser-out game between St. Maries (9-13) and Kellogg (13-9).

Saturday’s winner also advances to state.

Moscow, the three-time defending state champ, split its regular-season games with Bonners Ferry. Each team won by five on its home court.

“We’re looking forward to playing (Bonners Ferry),” Bears coach Sally Greene said. “We had one bad quarter defensively, and we didn’t take great care of the basketball. I look for a good high school basketball game.”

Guard play fueled the Bears’ transition offense, including a 12-0 run in the first quarter.

Junior forward Angie Sorbel’s head fake into a turnaround jump shot in the lane started the Moscow spree just 47 seconds into the game.

The Bears scored eight points off Lumberjacks’ turnovers in that burst, capped by junior guard Amy Lemm’s steal and layup at the 1:25 mark.

Moscow led 12-2, and five points would be as close as St. Maries could get.

“I think our team went out there ready to play,” Sorbel said. “We had a talk before (the game). We decided we were going to run the floor.”

Sorbel led all scorers with 16 points and seven rebounds. Lemm added 12 points and nine steals, with the 5-foot-5 Jenny Moslemi contributing eight points, 10 rebounds and five steals.

The Lumberjacks were down 38-27 to start the fourth quarter, but scored their last basket of the game with 7:04 remaining.

“We play good defense,” Greene said. “The defense sparks our offense. Our press causes all sorts of problems for us. Both starting guards (Moslemi and Lemm) played a terrific game.”

Senior forward Sonnet Farrell’s 12 points and seven rebounds topped St. Maries.

St. Maries 5 10 10 12 2 - 29 Moscow 12 10 16 13 - 51

St. Maries - Shippy 2, Reynolds 3, Farrell 12, M. Asher 0, Wolfe 2, A. Asher 2, Borgmann 4, Tams 4.

Moscow - Moslemi 8, Sorbel 16, Lemm 12, Richards 4, Gordon 0, Gibson 0, Wenny 2, Benson 2, Reynolds 5, Wilder 2.