All-stars don’t rest on laurels

It’s been said that who wins or loses an all-star event isn’t all that important.

Tell that to the participants in the second annual Idaho High School All-Star Boys and Girls Basketball Games.

The state’s best and brightest seniors came out and dazzled the 600 or so fans on hand Saturday at North Idaho College with tooth-and-nail tenacity in a pair of no-holds-barred slugfests.

At the end of the day, the boys from the North got revenge with a 114-102 victory and the girls from the South made it two in a row, knocking off their North counterparts 82-75.

Coeur d’Alene’s Jenna Griffitts, in addition to winning a between-games, unisex 3-point-shooting contest, tallied 32 points and seven rebounds for the North. Griffitts shared Most Valuable Player honors with forward Lexi Tucker of Blackfoot, who had 20 points and eight rebounds for the South.

In the boys game, Sandpoint’s Ben Mitchell earned MVP honors with a 15-point, 11-rebound performance.

Mitchell, who just gave an oral commitment to Community Colleges of Spokane, explained bluntly his desire to overrun the South.

“I love to win and I hate to lose, and that’s what I do,” said Mitchell, a 6-5 forward who led the Bulldogs to a district title this season. “I play hard every game – this isn’t just an exhibition game, this is another game for me to boost my ego, if that’s how you want to look at it.

“I don’t like losing – I like adding to the win column in my career.”

The first half – played by college rules with a 20-minute half and a 35-second shot clock – was a feeling-out process for the most part. It featured no less than seven ties and seven lead changes as the South took a 58-52 lead into the locker room.

The North regained the lead 7 minutes into the second half when Kam Kiefer of Lakeland buried a 3-pointer in transition. Four minutes later, South standout Jesse Childs of Borah, who matched teammate Victor Vazquez of Richfield with a game-high 18 points, tied it at 80 with a spin move to the hoop.

But the North immediately went on an 11-0 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Troy’s Aaron Smith. The South cut the lead to 97-95 with 5:30 to go, but the North went on another 11-0 run and never looked back.

Post Falls’ all-everything guard Scott Stockwell matched Mitchell’s team-high with 15 points.

The girls game started out as Griffitts’ show.

The Vikings standout, who had 17 points in the first half and was 9 for 9 from the free-throw line in the game, had her way early on and the North led 34-33 at the intermission.

The South, however, came out blazing and led by as many as 11 points with 6 minutes to go.

Griffitts and the North, however, weren’t going away that easily.

With 1:30 left, Griffitts had a short jumper blocked but grabbed the carom and banked it in to cut the lead to 79-72. Following a South turnover on the ensuing inbounds, Griffitts stepped back and buried a 3-pointer from the corner to cut the lead to four.

Griffitts promptly stole the South’s inbounds pass, but rushed a 3-pointer that hit the front of the rim and the North never scored again.

The 5-11 guard, thrilled to have the chance to play for first-year CdA coach Dale Poffenroth and alongside friendly high-school faces one last time, had a hard time being too discouraged following the loss.

“Of course I’m a little disappointed, but what the heck,” said Griffitts, who will attend Weber State on an athletic scholarship at the end of this summer. “It was the funnest experience and you don’t have to be down about it.

“We just got together last night, and we all played the best we could and did a good job. You can’t ask for anything more than that.”

The smooth-moving Tucker, who will attend College of Southern Idaho on a full-ride scholarship this fall, went 6 for 6 from the field and grabbed six of her game-high eight rebounds in the second half.

Between games, the all-stars clashed in 3-point shooting and slam-dunk competitions. Wrangler Williams of Mackay pulled down the rim with a reverse one-handed slam to net bragging rights as the distinguished dunker.

But it was Griffitts who brought the crowd to its feet with her artistry from beyond the arc in a contest that pitted boys against girls in 35-second rounds. After knocking down 10 in the first round, second only to the 11 of Borah’s Childs, Griffitts outdid her male counterpart by drilling No. 12 at the buzzer and besting him by one as the clock ran out.