Lumberjacks Do It Their Own Way By Pushing Pace, St. Maries Qualifies For Return To State

St. Maries was in a hurry to get back to state.

The Lumberjacks scored the first 16 points and ran away from Lakeland 69-58 to claim the A-2 District I tournament championship on Thursday at Lake City.

The second-seeded Lumberjacks (16-6), making their second consecutive trip to the state tournament, were nearly flawless in the first 5 minutes.

“We wanted to get them in our game,” St. Maries coach Todd Bitterman said. “We’re more successful when we’re running up and down the floor. We make good decisions and we’re a smart club. It’s a pleasure to coach these guys.”

St. Maries will face the winner of Saturday’s Kuna-Middleton game in the opening round Thursday at 2:15 PST at Meridian High near Boise.

Fourth-seeded Lakeland (8-13) will meet No. 1 Kellogg (17-4) tonight at 7 at Lake City. Tonight’s winner faces Grangeville on Saturday for the right to go to state.

Wayne Blalack hit two free throws with 24.9 seconds left as Kellogg eliminated No. 3 Bonners Ferry 41-39 earlier Thursday.

St. Maries 69, Lakeland 58

The Lumberjacks’ pressure defense unnerved Lakeland in the opening quarter. The Hawks had six turnovers before they scored their first points on Ryan Hanson’s jump shot.

Meanwhile, St. Maries scored early and often. Derick Driggs scored the first four points, Kyle Stevenson had the next three and Trent Duffey’s three-point point play made it 10-0.

Pat Eberlin hit a jump shot, Duffey scored in transition and he then connected from the baseline. It was 16-0 and the Hawks were never able to cut the deficit to single digits.

“Their pressure killed us and we came out tentative,” Lakeland coach Trent Derrick said. “It was a situation where they’ve been there before and we haven’t. I think that showed itself a little bit.”

Bitterman said he wanted the track-meet pace because Lakeland had hurt the Lumberjacks last Thursday with dribble penetration and interior strength in winning 67-66.

St. Maries threw numerous presses at the Hawks.

“We wanted to keep the tempo up and force them to see different looks, like a three-quarters court, halfcourt and fullcourt,” Bitterman said.

Driggs finished with 24 points, including a dunk - sort of - with 2:45 left. He went up for the jam, but the ball rattled off the rim and into the air before dropping through.

Duffey had 13 points and delivered numerous assists to fuel the Lumberjacks’ open-court game. Eberlin had 12 points.

Hansen led Lakeland with 16 points and Jared Mudge added 12, but the Hawks were stung by 20 turnovers.

St. Maries 69, Lakeland 58

Lakeland 8 10 18 16 - 58

St. Maries 22 11 33 17 - 69

Lakeland (8-13) - Bertsch 6, Finley 2, Skidmore 4, Hanson 16, Mudge 12, Hubbard 2, Stanford 3, S. Banks 4, M. Banks 4, Davis 5.

St. Maries (16-6) - Duffey 13, Driggs 24, Eberlin 12, Krebs 4, Stevenson 7, Grieser 2, Raebel 4, Harvey 2, Hanson 2.

Kellogg 41, Bonners Ferry 39

Bonners Ferry dominated early, taking a 19-6 lead midway through the second quarter, before the Wildcats crawled within 10 at half.

Kellogg controlled the second half. To be more precise, Jerrod Oertli dominated, scoring 15 of his 16 points. “Jerrod’s been due,” Kellogg coach Tony Kerfoot said. “He’s been kind of in a slump and it was his time to find his groove.”

Oertli’s baseline jumper gave Kellogg its first lead, 32-30, with 5:15 left. Bonners Ferry’s Adam Carpenter’s bucket tied the score at 39 with 42 seconds remaining.

After Blalack’s foul shots gave Kellogg a two-point lead, BF’s Carpenter and Brian Dinning missed from short range in the frantic final seconds.

Junior Andy Rice led Bonners with 14 points, but the Badgers committed 13 of their 20 turnovers in the second half.

“The (last two shots) kind of tell the story of the second half,” Badgers coach Ken Robertson said. “They hit everything and we didn’t.”

Bonners Ferry 13 10 7 9 - 39

Kellogg 6 7 11 17 - 41

Bonners Ferry (11-12) - Bateman 8, Rice 14, Dinning 6, Elliston 2, Carpenter 6, Solum 3.

Kellogg (17-4) - Blalack 7, Oertli 16, Mangum 2, Neff 2, Bircher 7, Mann 5, Marek 2.

Washington girls

Selkirk 65, Northport 53 (OT)

Rachea Allert made 11 of 15 free throws and Christina Fairbairn had eight rebounds as the Rangers eliminated the Mustangs in overtime in the District 7 B girls basketball tournament at Spokane Community College.

Fairbairn added 6-of-11 shooting from the field. Selkirk finished 23 of 34 from the line.

Karen Sauvola scored 25, hitting 9 of 15 from the floor and 7 of 9 from the line, and Candace Young hit 7 of 15 field goals and had eight rebounds for Northport. Sauvola finished her career with 1,587 points and Young with 1,088.

Selkirk 15 19 7 10 14 - 65

Northport 14 12 11 14 2 - 53

Selkirk (17-9) - Smith 0, Scherf 9, D. Haney 1, Schmidt 7, Fairbairn 16, M. Haney 1, Kinney 0, Beatty 5, Allert 19, Emrick 5, Smith 3.

Northport (19-6) - Burke 0, Wilson 0, Ashurst 1, Simpson 0, Day 6, Goodwin 0, Sauvola 25, Jimenez 0, Young 17, Brunette 4.

S-H 50, Valley Christian 35

Amanda Scoles scored 23, hitting 10 of 20 from the field, and the Falcons eliminated the Panthers at SCC.

Mandi Walters added eight rebounds and Stacey Whipple had six assists for the Falcons.

Valley Christian 4 8 8 15 - 35

Sprague-Harr. 6 11 16 17 - 50

Valley Christian (13-12) - Teterud 2, Altmeyer 2, Smith 12, Rosholt 2, Arnhold 0, Lanker 8, Cupp 7, Swenson 0, Peterson 0, Evans 2.

Sprague-Harrington (18-6) - Sewall 2, Whipple 3, Ernst 0, Maurer 6, Hatten 0, Walters 13, Morse 3, Scoles 23.