3A boys: Priest River takes state
The Priest River Spartans capped a winter sweep by the school's basketball teams by capturing the 3A state championship.
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By Jordan Rodriguez
Special to the Spokesman Review
NAMPA, Idaho — Fifteen days ago, Priest River High School didn’t have a state championship to its name.
Now, the Spartans have two. Two weeks after the girls basketball team captured the first state title in school history, the boys claimed their first championship with a 79-65 victory over Salmon on Saturday at the Idaho Center.
Senior post Jake Weimer scored 28 points and junior guard Eric Holbrook added 23 as the Spartans (22-3) blew open a close game by outscoring the Savages 46-33 in the second half.
“It’s really special, especially because the girls did it this year too,” Weimer said. “My freshman year, there was a whole different mentality at our school, but I think we’ve managed to turn it around to a winning mentality.”
Priest River, which entered the tournament with the best record in the 3A field, defeated Homedale 62-51 in Thursday’s opener and knocked off Shelley 60-49 in Friday’s semifinal.
Saturday’s title game was close for the first 20 minutes before Weimer started taking over with an array of inside moves and mid-range jumpers.
“We hit a few shots and it loosened up their zone a little bit,” Priest River coach Ryan Bodecker said. “Jake Weimer is a great player when you get him the ball in the high post, and we did a good job of that.”
Holbrook and Max Salesky did most of the damage from the perimeter for the Spartans. Salesky finished with 15 points and Holbrook nailed three first-half 3-pointers that helped free up Weimer inside.
“We played great tonight,” Holbrook said. “Jake played great, we hit some key threes and moved the ball well. It’s a great feeling. Awesome. Just unbelievable.”
Holbrook, who played all 32 minutes, also drew the task of guarding Trey Infanger. Salmon’s star senior had a couple scoring bursts, but he only made 8-of-23 field goal attempts and finished with a hard-earned 23 points.
“We really challenge Eric a lot,” Bodecker said. “He’s our point guard and our ball handler, but we also challenge him to guard the other team’s best guy and not get in foul trouble. He did a great job tonight.”
With Holbrook and Salesky out-dueling Infanger, Salmon turned to big men Riley Sessions (16 points, nine rebounds) and Austin Nooner (10 points, eight rebounds).
The Savages (20-6) finished with a 40-31 edge in rebounds, but they had no answer for Weimer, who made 8-of-11 field goals and 12-of-13 free throws.
Senior post Chad Yount chipped in six points and 10 rebounds to help the Spartans win the front-line battle and earn a second championship banner to hang in their gym.
“It’s great,” said Weimer, who averaged 24 points and seven rebounds in three state tournament games. “We all put in a lot of work and spent a lot of time in the gym, so I’m glad it paid off like this.”
