Panhandle A-2 Boys Begin Quest For State
The chase for two berths to the Idaho state A-2 boys basketball tournament begins tonight with a pair of loser-out games at the District I-II Tournament at Lake City High in Coeur d’Alene.
In the opener, No. 3 seed Priest River (8-11) meets No. 6 Lakeland (3-15) at 6:15, followed by No. 4 Moscow (9-11) and No. 5 St. Maries (3-16) at 8.
The winners advance to the double-elimination portion of the tournament on Wednesday.
Intermountain League co-champions Bonners Ferry (16-4) and Kellogg (17-3) begin play Wednesday. Bonners Ferry won a coin flip to determine seeding for Wednesday’s games.
Kellogg meets the Priest River-Lakeland winner at 6:15 on Wednesday followed by Bonners Ferry and the Moscow-St. Maries winner at 8.
Wednesday’s winners meet in the district championship game Friday at 8 p.m. The champion advances to state, which will be held March 2-4 at Reed Gym in Pocatello.
Local winner
Bryan Klingaman of Rathdrum won a state title in the Elks Hoop Shoot Free Throw Contest.
Klingaman made 23 of 25 free throws Saturday to capture the 10-11-year-old division at the state meet at College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls.
Klingaman advances to the regional contest March 11 at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham, Ore. If he wins there, he’ll advance to the national finals in April at Indianapolis.
Football
Shaumbe Wright-Fair, a wide receiver who played at Washington State, was the first selection Monday in the two-day World League of American Football draft in Dallas.
Wright-Fair was selected by the Rhein Fire as WLAF coaches began choosing 144 players for the league’s six teams.
Also, 17 NFL teams allocated 37 current players to the WLAF, including two quarterbacks with Inland Empire ties.
Denver sent Pullman High grad and former Virginia Tech QB Will Furrer to Amsterdam and former Idaho Vandal Doug Nussmeier was sent by New Orleans to Rhein.
College basketball
Whitworth’s men’s and women’s teams made a twin killing when the Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges passed out postseason awards on Monday.
The nationally ranked Pirates men (18-9) had the Coach of the Year in Warren Friedrichs and placed forwards Kevin Wright and Nate Dunham on the first all-league team and guard Roman Wickers on the second team.
The NCIC Champion Whitworth women (16-11) not only had the Coach of the Year in first-year mentor Helen Higgs, but also the Player of the Year in Annette Sweeney. Sweeney was also a first-team selection and teammate Sherri Northington was a second-team all-league pick.
Sweeney, a 5-9 senior guard from Corvallis, Ore., also was the NCIC Player of the Week last week after scoring 45 points in two road wins. She led the NCIC in scoring (20.9 average) and 3-point shooting (43.5 percent).
The men begin district play at Willamette on Wednesday night at 7:30 while the women will play Whitman at 6 p.m. on Friday at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.
Whitworth will be the site of the four-team NAIA District 2 playoffs Friday and Saturday.
A pair of road losses cost Whitworth’s men eight spots in the NAIA Division II men’s poll.
Whitworth slid to 14th from sixth after dropping NCIC decisions at Pacific and Lewis & Clark.