Spartans turn tables on BF, head to state

Three was a magic number for sophomore Lacy Hopkins and Priest River Wednesday in the championship game of the 3A District I girls basketball tournament at Timberlake High School in Spirit Lake.

The No. 3 Spartans (13-9) unleashed a barrage of second-half 3-pointers, four by Hopkins in the third quarter alone, to defeat top-seeded Bonners Ferry 65-43 and earn an automatic berth in the state tournament Feb. 16-18 at Bishop Kelly High School in Boise. It was the third time the teams met this season and the first time the Spartans came out on top.

BF (15-6) faces off with Kellogg tonight at 7 at Timberlake in a loser-out game that sends the winner to a play-in game Saturday at 1:30 p.m. against either Fruitland or Weiser at Highland High in Craigmont. Kellogg (12-10) advanced earlier in the evening with a 48-33 win over St. Maries.

Priest River 65, B. Ferry 43

In a rematch of last year’s district final, the Badgers had their way early, going on an 11-0 run for a 21-10 lead midway through the second quarter.

But the Spartans went on a 12-0 run, capped by a Hopkins 3-pointer and Brittany Smith’s 8-footer, and took a 22-21 lead into the locker room.

The third quarter was all PR as Hopkins knocked down 16 of her career-high 22 points and the Spartans outscored the Badgers 23-9.

“It was amazing,” said Hopkins, holding the net-draped championship trophy. “We’ve been trying to beat Bonners all season, and we just came out with all this heart as a team and our main players played awesome and everyone played great.”

“We shot well, we found some openings, and we were able to knock down those shots,” said Spartans coach Jamie Pancho. “It didn’t feel like we were able to knock down those shots Monday night and tonight we did a great job of shooting in rhythm and were able to catch them.”

BF coach Travis Hinthorn said it was a different Priest River team that took the court against his Badgers.

“They were definitely better and wanted it,” Hinthorn said. “They were more aggressive and quicker – they shot better than the last two times we played them.”

Junior guard Becky Lowther led the way for BF with 14 points.

Kellogg 48, St. Maries 33

The Lumberjacks took a 20-17 lead going into the half, but the size of the Wildcats proved too much in the second half as 6-foot-1 freshman post Amanda Seeling had six of her team-high 11 points in the third quarter.

St. Maries (8-13) was without the services of starting junior post Mallory Lehman, who was suffering from flu-like symptoms, for all but the first few minutes of the game.

Junior guard Sam Siron had 13 points to lead the Lumberjacks.