Priest River, Moscow Advance
Priest River rode the 21-point performance of senior Kyle York past Lakeland 58-53 in the opener of the A-2 District I-II boys basketball tournament Tuesday night.
In the nightcap at Lake City High School, Moscow spread its offense around and eliminated St. Maries 65-48.
Tonight’s semifinals feature No. 2 Kellogg (17-3) vs. Priest River (9-11) at 6:15, followed by No. 1 Bonners Ferry (16-4) vs. Moscow (10-11) at 7:30.
“We’re going to have to play extremely smart offensively and defensively,” Spartans coach Kelly Reed said of the Kellogg matchup.
“Defensively, (the Wildcats are) awfully tough for us to guard. Offensively, we’re going to have to be patient and get good looks at the basket.”
Priest River 58, Lakeland 53
York sank 15 of 15 free throws to boost the Spartans past the Hawks.
The teams played even through the first quarter, although Lakeland sputtered offensively in the last 2:18.
York’s two free throws at 1:35 pulled the Spartans to within 9-8 and his lefthanded layup in traffic at the 37-second mark gave the Spartans their first lead of the game at 10-9.
But Lakeland wouldn’t score again until forward Bill Anderson’s 3-point play 6:07 before halftime.
That was as close as the Hawks got.
Priest River outscored Lakeland 9-0 in the last 6 minutes of the third quarter to open a 40-27 lead.
Sophomore Paul Kowalczyk came off the bench to spark the Hawks in the fourth quarter with eight points.
Jared Trost chipped in 14 points for Priest River and Darin Bradbury added 12 points in his first game since an earlyseason knee injury.
Junior forward Brett DeBoer’s 11 points, 12 rebounds and two blocked shots led Lakeland (3-16). Doug Freed added 10 points.
“I thought we fought to the end,” Hawks coach Mike Bayley said. “I was pretty proud of them.
“In a close game, York is probably the difference,” Bayley added. “He does everything. You have to do so many strange things defensively to contain him, it really hurts the other parts of the ballgame.”
Lakeland 9 14 4 26 - 53
Priest River 12 17 11 18 - 58
LAKELAND Noble 5, Rothrock 0, Bevacqua 2, Anderson 8, Singer 7, Thornton 0, DeBoer 11, Freed 10, Eixenberger 2, Kowakzyk 8.
PRIEST RIVER Score 8, Bradbury 12, York 21, Rabe 3, Schaefer 0, Trost 14, Mohr 0.
Moscow 65, St. Maries 48
The Bears got good ball movement and ran their halfcourt offense to perfection.
Moscow jumped out to a 7-0 lead and never looked back.
Guard Adam Miller’s second 3-pointer off an assist from Gil Pierce pushed the Bears ahead 12-2 midway into the first quarter.
The Bears led 31-15 at halftime, as Travis Walker connected on a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Moscow’s lead bounced between eight to 20 points in the second half, as Dudley substituted liberally.
Post Jim Hudson and reserve Jeff Lathen shared game-scoring honors for Moscow with 13 points each. Miller added 12 points.
St. Maries (3-17) got eight points each from Ty Konkright and Steve Raebel.
Moscow 65, St. Maries 48
St. Maries 3 12 15 18 - 48
Moscow 16 15 18 16 - 65
ST. MARIES Bergquist 5, Craner 2, Eberlin 3, Quigley 2, Holdahl 2, Konkright 4, 8, Weinmann 4, Eccles 3, Albury 0, Raebel 8, Brebner 6.
MOSCOW Barnes 1, Miller 12, Walker 9, Johnson 4, Dudley 0, Lathan 13, Colbert 4, Stinebaugh 4, Pierce 5, Hudson 13.
A-4 TOURNAMENT
Lakeside 84, Kootenai 64
At Plummer, Dan Montague had 23 points and nine rebounds as the host Knights (12-9) eliminated the Warriors (8-11) for the fourth and final seed into the District A-4 Tournament.
Lakeside opened a lead in the first quarter and shot 54 percent from the field.
Brandon Nelson had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Knights. Kootenai was led by Jon Chatfield’s 22 points.
Lakeside will play top-seeded Clark Fork on Thursday as the doubleelimination tournament opens. Mullan and Falls Christian will also play that night.
Kootenai 7 22 13 22 - 64
Lakeside 19 18 20 27 - 84
KOOTENAI Usdrowski 9, Orr 0, Lamb 8, Derbyshire 9, Greene 0, Reinhofer 10, Carlson 1, Chatfield 22.
LAKESIDE Twoteeth 7, Montague 23, Nelson 17, SiJohn 14, Meshell 12, Lambert 6, Lozeau 5.