S-H Girls Make First State Trip

Northeast B basketball

Curlew’s boys ended a drought and the Sprague-Harrington girls survived two of them Friday night at the Northeast District B Tournament at Spokane Falls.

The Curlew Cougars knocked off the defending state champion Republic Tigers 66-34 to earn a berth at the state tourney for the first time since they won it in 1972.

The Sprague-Harrington Falcon girls overcame a pair of 2-minute scoring droughts in the fourth quarter to stave off the Selkirk Rangers 55-53 and earn their first-ever trip to state.

Also, the St. George’s girls upended Northport 53-48 for their seventh state tournament berth and the Odessa boys knocked off Almira/Coulee-Hartline 49-38 for their first appearance since 1990.

In today’s seeding games on the girls side, S-H and St. George’s play at 1:30 p.m. for third and fourth, while Ritzville and Wilbur-Creston square off at 6 to for the district crown and 1-2 seeds.

In the boys half, Curlew and Odessa battle for third and fourth at 3:15. St. George’s and Valley Christian play at 7:45 for the championship and 1-2 seeds.

Curlew 66, Republic 34

The Cougars (21-5) used a three-pronged offensive attack to overwhelm the Tigers (19-7).

Gunner Olson, Erich Prazak and Jeremy Groth each scored 17 points to help Curlew avenge a league-tournament loss to Republic.

Olson scored 17 despite missing the second period after being whistled for three first-quarter fouls.

“Tonight you saw the real Curlew team,” said coach Steve Brown. “I think our kids had a little stage fright. We’re from a small town and when you travel to a big city and play in a big place it can take awhile to adjust.”

Republic coach Rory Rickard, whose freshman son Tyrus missed the game because of an emergency appendectomy, felt momentum was key.

“We just couldn’t score tonight,” he said. “The one time we beat them we scored early and gained some confidence. But tonight they jumped on us early and we couldn’t find the range.”

Republic 6 12 7 9 - 34

Curlew 11 16 22 17 - 66

REPUBLIC - Dansel 0, Davenport 6, Dinkins 18, Gliddon 0, Hadden 0, Hanks 2, Hutton 0, Krohn 2, Kuchenmeister6, R.Rickard 0, T.Rickard 0, Russell 0.

CURLEW - Conger 0, G.Olsen 17, Groth 17, Edwards 1, J.B.Olsen 2, Prazak 17, Cribby 6, Stotts 0, March 0, Strandberg 6.

Odessa 49, ACH 38

The difference in this one was at the free-throw line. The Tigers (17-9) connected on 17 of 22, while the Warriors (16-11) were 1 for 1.

Odessa’s Ryan Floch led all scorers with 14 points. Craig Elder scored 11 to pace ACH.

Odessa 7 8 18 16 - 49

ACH 11 5 9 13 - 38

ODESSA - Luiten 0, Kramer 9, G.Schafer 8, Shaw 0, Floch 14, Hardung 0, Jeske 8, Pitts 8, Z.Schafer 0, Walter 0, Praetorius 2.

ALMIRA/COULEE-HARTLINE - Evans 0, Dormaier 8, Thomas 8, Elder 11, St. John 0, Pate 3, Higginbotham 0, Leander 4, Emerson 0, Gwinn 2, Durrant 2, Neilsen 0.

Girls

Sprague-Harr. 55, Selkirk 53

Amanda Scoles had 17 points and eight rebounds to lead the Falcons (17-9) past the Rangers (22-4).

Sprague-Harrington saw a seven-point halftime lead dissipate by the end of the third quarter. Selkirk went on a 20-13 run to knot the score at 44 heading into the final period.

The Rangers used a pair of baskets by sophomore guard Rachez Allert to take a 50-46 lead, but then lost their inside force on defense when senior Molly Carlson picked up her fifth foul with 2:25 to play.

“That was really key for us when Molly fouled out,” said Falcons coach Stacia Soliday. “That allowed us to push the ball back inside and we came up with some big baskets.”

Carlson’s departure led to an 8-0 Falcons run and a 54-50 lead and denied Selkirk its first state tournament berth in 15 years.

“We struggled offensively in the first half,” said Selkirk coach Kelly Cain. “We came out in the second half and ran our motion offense, which we hadn’t used since Christmas, and things started clicking. Losing Molly really hurt us.”

Selkirk 13 11 20 9 - 53

Spr.-Harr. 15 16 13 11 - 55

SELKIRK - Fairbairn 15, Scherf 12, Barnes 0, Pettis 3, Smith 2, Haney 0, Jones 4, Beatty 0, Allert 10, Carlson 7.

SPRAGUE-HARRINGTON - Maurer 0, Whipple 10, Ernst 0, Walters 11, Charlton 0, Hatten 9, Harding 0, Hatcher 0, Engles 8, Morse 0, Scoles 17.

St. George’s 53, Northport 48

Sophomore guard Wenchi Liu tallied a game-high 25 points to lead the Dragons past the Mustangs.

The Dragons had a decided edge at the free-throw line, where they outscored the Mustangs 20-5.

Northport’s Amanda Day and Karen Sauvola combined for 31 points, but together they made just 12 of 36 shots from the floor.

St. George’s 13 11 12 17 - 53

Northport 7 15 12 14 - 48

ST. GEORGE’S - Liu 25, Clarke 5, Philopant 0, Stothart 0, Henley 11, Blume 0, Grant 0, Nielsen 0, DePonty 2, RouthCorker 9, Kutteruf 0, Moore 1.

NORTHPORT - Burke 0, Wilson 0, Day 16, Goodwin 0, Lenhard 4, Sauvola 15, Jimenez 6, Godes 0, Young 6, Brunette 1.

, DataTimes