Defense Nets Berth At State For Kellogg

Defense wins games.

It’s that simple, and the Kellogg boys basketball team proved it Saturday afternoon, scoring a 51-32 victory over St. Maries in an A-2 District I-II loser-out game at Lake City High School.

The Wildcats used tenacious man-to-man defense, forcing the Lumberjacks into 10 turnovers in the first half while only allowing 12 points.

“We really get after it on defense and that’s a big part of our team,” Kellogg coach Tony Kerfoot said.

On the other end of the floor, senior guard Jeremy Behm scored all 11 of his points in the first half to help his team to a 24-12 lead at the break.

Then, Kellogg went on a 9-0 run behind the hot shooting of Tim Kohal, who ended up with a game-high 15 points, to start the second half. St. Maries never recovered. The Lumberjacks were forced to open up their style of play to counter the Wildcats’ patient offensive execution.

“Our game plan was to slow things down and not have a lot of turnovers, but we didn’t execute,” St. Maries coach Todd Bitterman said.

Until the third period, Intermountain League scoring leader Casey Fisher of Kellogg was a non-factor. Fisher was held to two points in the first half before scoring six in the third period, including a dunk that brought the Kellogg crowd to its feet with 5 seconds left.

Fisher hurt an ankle attempting another dunk early in the fourth period and sat out the rest of the game.

“He only twisted his ankle, but we didn’t want to risk anything before state,” Kerfoot said.

St. Maries (10-12) made a run at the end of the game, but came up short despite the efforts of Steve Raebel, who played tough defense on Fisher in the middle.

“Steve works hard and he’s probably our top player,” Bitterman said.

Kellogg (19-4) advances to state and will face District IV champion Jerome (15-9) on Thursday in the opening game at Idaho State University’s Reed Gymnasium in Pocatello.

“I like the fact that the focus will be on someone else, and we’ll just be laying around looking to knock someone off,” Kerfoot said.

Kellogg 51, St. Maries 32

Kellogg 13 11 18 9 -51

St.Maries 8 4 7 13 -32

KELLOGG-Behm 11, Kohal 15, Fisher 8, Little 6, Corkill 2, Towne 3, Carlson 3, Rice 2.

ST. MARIES-Eberlin 6, S. Raebel 5, Craner 4, M. Raebel 2, Weinmann 6, Spooner 5, Holdahl 2, Dawson 2.