After Defeat, Hawks Will Try For Third Sugar-Salem Beats Lakeland With Barrage Of Free Throws

The Lakeland High girls basketball team is playing for a trophy today, but not in the location it desired.

Even though Lakeland’s bid to play for the State A-2 championship fell short Friday, Hawks coach Steve Seymour couldn’t fault his team’s effort in a 68-58 loss to Sugar-Salem at Nampa High School.

Lakeland (20-2) will meet Preston (14-11) for third place at Nampa High. Tipoff is at 10 a.m. PST.

St. Maries, meanwhile, had to go home a day earlier than it hoped as the Lumberjacks couldn’t keep up with Weiser and lost 58-43.

In the state final, Sugar-Salem (22-3) will take on American Falls (22-5) at the Idaho Center. American Falls defeated Preston 53-34.

In the other loser-out game Friday, Fruitland topped Filer 46-35.

Sugar-Salem 68, Lakeland 58

Trailing by seven points with 1:30 left, the Hawks had to foul.

And the Diggers responded, making eight straight free throws in one stretch to stop the Hawks. Sugar-Salem made 26 of 34 foul shots overall.

“They knocked down clutch free throw after clutch free throw,” Seymour said.

It was a dead-even game until the late stages of the final quarter. But it took some odd circumstances to get there.

First, Lakeland opened quickly, zipping to a 21-10 lead by the end of the first quarter.

Second, the Diggers answered in the second quarter, breezing through Lakeland’s full-court pressure. S-S overcame the deficit to take a 35-33 lead at halftime.

Lakeland managed to tie through three quarters at 48.

Sugar-Salem’s versatile 5-foot-8 forward Tawnya Woodbury hurt Lakeland repeatedly. She finished with a game-high 27 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the floor and 9 of 11 from the foul line. She also had a team-high 10 rebounds.

Lakeland’s attack was much more balanced as it placed four players in double figures. Senior wing Anika Duvall continued her fine play with a team-high 14 points, followed by sophomores Micki Desmarais (13), Stacey Douglas (11) and Ashley Jamison (10).

“We made some mistakes, but we played well overall,” Seymour said. “We came out, put it to them in the first quarter. Our quickness was an advantage.”

Lakeland forced S-S to commit a season high in turnovers (23).

“They were able to figure out our pressure and made some nice passes and adjusted,” Seymour said of the second quarter. “And then they started knocking down big shots.”

Seymour said the game proved his team belonged among the top teams in the state.

“Nobody gets into this game being a slouch,” he said. “We wanted to show them that it was no fluke for us being here. We knew Sugar-Salem was one of the pretournament favorites to win it all.

“This is an experience that we haven’t had before, playing in this tournament. I think we’ll come back ready to play (today).”

Sugar-Salem 10 25 13 20 - 68

Lakeland 21 12 15 10 - 58

Sugar-Salem - Kolditz 0, Hillman 6, Dexter 2, Fuller 8, Woodbury 27, A. Gneiting 7, Ferguson 15, Carpenter 3.

Lakeland - Douglas 11, Jamison 10, Hansen 1, VonBehren 1, Desmarais 13, Austad 2, Egbert 6, Duvall 14.

Weiser 58, St. Maries 43

This game went according to seed. The Wolverines were a much better team than the Lumberjacks.

Weiser was probably the best team beaten in the first round. After being outscored 25-9 in the fourth quarter in a 50-45 loss to American Falls on Thursday, the Wolverines weren’t about to have a second letdown.

The Lumberjacks fought hard, trailing just 11-10 after the first quarter. But a scoring drought took its toll on St. Maries in the second half and the Lumberjacks complicated matters with more poor free-throw shooting.

Weiser sandwiched a pair of scoring runs - 11-0 and 7-0 - around St. Maries’ only basket in the second period, a 3-pointer, and the Wolverines opened a 29-13 lead by halftime.

The game was over.

Weiser led by as many as 24 points in the third quarter. St. Maries couldn’t come any closer than 14 in the fourth.

St. Maries made just 9 of 30 free throws, 6 of 18 in the final quarter. Weiser went 19 of 33 from the foul line.

“We were a little down after losing yesterday,” St. Maries coach Bryan Chase said. “I knew it was going to be a tough battle coming in against Weiser. They’re probably one of the better teams in the state. The kids played hard. And we still missed quite a few free throws.”

Lacey Harberd led Weiser with 18 points and Laraine Skow added 16. Karin Grieser topped St. Maries with 10.

Chase was proud of his team’s season. His five senior starters were 2-20 as sophomores - the year before Chase took over.

“I thought we had a good showing down here,” Chase said. “These kids have really fought back to get to where they are. To go (2-20) two seasons ago shows what these kids are made of.”

Weiser 11 18 15 14 - 58

St. Maries 10 3 14 16 - 43

Weiser - West 0, Bowman 1, Johnson 3, Alley 8, Morse 4, Clark 0, Matthews 4, Harberd 18, Goto 3, Burton 0, Goff 1, Skow 16.

St. Maries - Thurston 0, Harpole 5, M. Hammons 2, Holdahl 7, A. Hammons 7, Krebs 0, Grieser 10, A. Kachelmier 2, Nelson 4, Wolfe 0, Gibson 2, Charles 4.