Cda Boys, Sugar-Salem Girls Win First-Round Games In Classic

There were no surprises Friday night at Viking Gym as the Coeur d’Alene boys and Sugar-Salem girls prevailed in the Christmas Basketball Classic.

Sophomore post Luke O’Dowd’s 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocked shots paved the way for the Vikings’ 66-57 victory in the opener.

The Diggers, top-ranked among State A-2 girls’ teams, chalked up their 11th win against no losses with a 72-46 decision in the late game.

Sugar-Salem, which traveled 8 hours from Sugar City in southeastern Idaho, visits Lake City today, while Coeur d’Alene plays host to teams from Colville. The girls tip off at 6 p.m., the boys at 7:30.

Boys

Coeur d’Alene 66, Sugar-Salem 57

The first 3 minutes of the fourth quarter decided the game for the Vikings (4-4), who couldn’t quite shake the Diggers (2-6).

An inside basket by O’Dowd gave Coeur d’Alene a 47-45 lead to start the last period.

O’Dowd’s basket also set off a string of 14 straight Vikings’ points, as Coeur d’Alene got its transition offense rolling. A layup by Josh Davis off a steal by Ryan Corbeill made it 59-45 with 5:26 remaining.

”(The Diggers) scare me, because they just keep hanging around,” Vikings coach Larry Bieber said. “We tried to up the intensity on defense and that’s why we got the basket out of transition.”

O’Dowd got offensive support from forward Ben Davis with 11 points, as well as reserve senior forward Luke Lee, who added 10 points and nine rebounds.

“Luke O’Dowd did a good job,” Bieber said. “He finally picked it up in the second half.”

Guard Spencer Haacke led Sugar-Salem with 20 points and seven rebounds.

Sugar-Salem 14 18 13 10 - 57

Coeur d’Alene 15 21 11 19 - 66

SUGAR-SALEMGage 5, Peeples 9, Stoddard 2, Huntsman 2, Haacke 20, Dalling 0, Miyasaki 2, Gee 6, Romrell 8, Holman 3.

COEUR d’ALENEGoodwin 0, J. Davis 8, Milionis 2, Lowry 5, Corbeill 6, Lee 10, B. Davis 11, Hermstad 0, Kovatch 0, Peebles 4, O’Dowd 20.

Girls

Sugar-Salem 72, Coeur d’Alene 46

Diggers coach Lynn Romrell knows his team can play better.

And Vikings coach Sheila Sharp simply didn’t know what to expect, juggling her lineup to include three new starters, as forward Kim Pearson was absent due to a student government meeting. Post Corey Hansen, point guard Amber Orr and reserve Jessica Janke watched from the bench while starting two-game suspensions for athletic code violations.

The return of Pearson today is good news for Coeur d’Alene (3-9), which got excellent efforts from junior guard Carrie Cultra and freshman post Kellie Stern.

Cultra led the Vikings with 15 points, four steals and four assists. Stern and Andrea Wilkey collected 11 rebounds each.

“I think the girls gave 100 percent,” Sharp said. “These girls went in there with that type of attitude. I think the first half we played together really well. I think in the second half we ran out of gas.”

After a back-and-forth first quarter, Coeur d’Alene managed to stay within seven points of the Diggers at halftime.

But the third quarter belonged to Sugar-Salem, which used a 19-4 run to break the game open.

“I thought we kinda ran them down and I’ve done that with teams,” Romrell said. “We have seven girls and I just rotate them.”

The Diggers picked up 48 combined points and 19 rebounds from post players Mandy Mortensen, Cady Williams and Kristy Hymas.

Sugar-Salem 17 16 19 20 - 72

Coeur d’Alene 14 12 11 9 - 46

SUGAR-SALEMWasden 4, Jensen 4, Woodbury 6, Stears 4, Barrus 6, Mortensen 19, Williams 17, Gee 0, Hymas 12, Griggs 0.

COEUR d’ALENEChambers 3, Beck 0, Richards 2, Pedersen 9, Cultra 15, Tatum 2, Wilkey 7, Stern 8.