Grohs grows to Garnett-like proportions to lead Salmon past Priest River in semifinals

KUNA, Idaho – Six-foot-1 Michelle Grohs, who seemingly had limbs as long as her trunk, blocked the Priest River High girls basketball team’s hope of playing for the State 3A championship for a second consecutive year.

Grohs equaled a season high of nine blocked shots while altering perhaps a dozen more as Salmon stymied the Spartans 50-37 in a semifinal game Friday at Kuna High School played before a crowd estimated at 1,200.

Priest River (14-10) can earn the third-place trophy this morning when it meets Filer (19-3) at 10. Undefeated Marsh Valley (22-0) will try to repeat as state champ when it takes on Salmon (23-4) tonight. Marsh Valley stopped Filer 50-42 in the other semifinal.

Bonners Ferry bounced back in a loser-out game, holding off Fruitland 60-55. The Badgers (13-10) meet Shelley (14-15) for fourth place. Tipoff is at 8:15.

Salmon 50, Priest River 37: Grohs, who gave an oral commitment to Idaho State University in December, roams the perimeter on offense while clogging up the middle on defense.

She scored a team-high 15 points, making 3 of 4 from behind the 3-point arc, and hauled down 14 rebounds to go along with her blocked shots. She also had five assists and three steals.

The Spartans found themselves trailing 8-6 after the first quarter. But Priest River went into halftime behind 27-14 after the decisive second quarter.

An 11-4 spurt gave Salmon a 19-10 lead, capped when Grohs drilled a 3-pointer after she stepped around a screen at the top of the arc. Another 8-4 stretch put Salmon comfortably ahead at intermission.

Feeling the brunt of Grohs’ presence in the middle was PR senior post and leading scorer Calli Jo Turner, who went 0 for 9 from the field in the first half and scored one point.

She scored 14 of her team-high 15 points in a second half that saw the Spartans compete, despite being too far behind to catch Salmon.

“We did a much better job on (Grohs) the second half, but it was a tale of two halves. Actually a tale of one quarter,” PR coach Marty Landry said. “We were a kind of tentative, maybe a little nervous, maybe came out flat. I’m not really sure what it was. Boy, if we would have had the fire and intensity that we had in the second half, I think it would have been a whole different ballgame.”

Landry pointed out the 5-10 Turner has been defended by taller posts, but Grohs was different.

“She’s had 6-footers guarding her all year, but none with the athletic ability that this girl had,” Landry said. “The first shot she went up and checked … the coaches kind of looked at each other and went like ‘Kevin Garnett or something.’ “

Five times Priest River pulled within 10 points in the second half, but the Spartans couldn’t cut it to less than double digits.

“I’m proud of our girls. They didn’t quit,” Landry said. “If we could have gotten it to single digits, maybe it might had been different. But Salmon did a nice job of answering any run we made.”

Bonners Ferry 60, Fruitland 55: The Badgers somehow found a way to survive and play for a trophy.

After falling behind 13-6, Bonners Ferry battled back within 26-24 by halftime.

“We didn’t play very well in the first half, but defense kept us in it,” Badgers coach Travis Hinthorn said. “I just told the girls if we could stay close, we could win it in the end and we did.”

Hinthorn had special praise for junior Jennifer Youngwirth, who had 15 points, three rebounds and two steals.

Sophomore Becky Lowther led with 22 points to go with 10 rebounds and three assists. Sophomore post Katie Poston added 11 points and nine rebounds.

Fruitland (16-10) had three players score 14 points each.