North Star Representatives Bow Out Of A-4 Tournament

The North Star League’s representatives at the State A-4 girls basketball tournament encountered early exits Thursday.

Raft River beat Kootenai 57-28 and Garden Valley edged Lakeside 61-56 in overtime in loser-out games.

Raft River 57, Kootenai 28

At Kuna, Brook Hanson scored 21 and the Trojans (18-9) took advantage of 40 Kootenai turnovers to eliminate the Warriors (10-12).

Nat Damiano scored 12 and Jamie Bornitz had six rebounds for Kootenai, which qualified for state for the first time in 14 years.

Kootenai 14 5 2 7 - 28

Raft River 12 18 17 10 - 57

KOOTENAI S.Kraack 2, Reinhardt 2, Andersen 0, Bornitz 7, Hunter 4, Goodson 1, L.Kraack 0, Conley 0, Damiano 12.

RAFT RIVER Darrington 8, B.Hanson 21, T.Hanson 4, Spencer 2, J.Smith 10, K.Smith 2, Goff 2, Steed 8, Polman 0, Lee 0.

Garden Valley 61, Lakeside 56 (OT)

The Knights (15-8) fell after an extra period. GV (19-5) moves on. No details were reported.

Bi-County Tourney

Reardan 52, ACH 44

Reardan held on to its No. 1 ranking Thursday while also holding on to the boys title of Bi-County League Tournament champion.

Rhett Soliday hit four 3-pointers, and he and James Kiger had eight rebounds apiece to lead the Indians (22-0) over seventh-ranked Almira/Coulee-Hartline 52-44 at the league championship in Reardan.

Reardan made 16 of 19 free throws and held the Warriors (17-4) to 36 percent shooting from the field.

Reardan beat ACH 53-49 five weeks ago and also topped the Warriors for last year’s district title.

Reardan 10 19 9 14 - 52

A/C-Hartline 13 9 13 9 - 44

REARDAN Jenkin 0, Soliday 14, Titchenal 16, Martin 0, Eastman 10, Graham 7, Kiger 5.

ALMIRA/COULEE-HARTLINE R.Higginbotham 3, Pierce 13, Leander 0, Pate 3, A.Higginbotham 0, Goodwin 5, Evers 19, Neilsen 1.

Ritzville 56, Valley Christian 44

John Galbreath scored 12 of his 23 during the telling third quarter to guide the ninth-ranked Broncos (21-3) over the Panthers (15-9) in the game for third and fourth district seeds.

Galbreath hit three 3-pointers and finished 8 of 9 from the free-throw line. VC shot 11 of 27 (41 percent) from the line. Ritzville won its lone league matchup with VC 59-49.

Ritzville 10 9 22 15 - 56

Valley Christian 9 7 9 19 - 44

RITZVILLE Arlt 9, Benzel 0, Duff 6, Boness 4, DeVore 2, J.Galbreath 23, S.Galbreath 10, Russel 2.

VALLEY CHRISTIAN Decker 11, Evans 6, Teterud 4, Spuler 11, Sears 8, Sandin 1, Smith 0.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: State A-4 basketball Thursday’s loser-out games North Gem 46, Cambridge 44 Garden Valley 61, Lakeside 56 (OT) Raft River 57, Kootenai 28 Richfield 68, Rimrock 55