Spartans knock off Timberlake

Priest River lived to fight another day Wednesday in the 3A District I boys basketball tournament at North Idaho College.

Thanks in large part to a swarming half-court zone trap and the red-hot shooting of senior guard Micah Smith, the Spartans knocked off Timberlake 50-48 in a frenetically-paced nail-biter that saw nine lead changes, the last coming with less than 2 minutes left in the game.

Smith, who scored a game-high 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting, 3 for 4 from 3-point land, said his team has finally figured out how to win.

The realization came not a moment too soon for Priest River (13-11), which advances to a play-in game Saturday in Grangeville.

“What our problem was is that we always fast break and take shots and we wouldn’t have any rebounders,” Smith said. “So what we did is we talked as a team before districts – we knew we were doing something wrong, but we knew we were a good team.

“So we started slowing things down, getting good shots, getting good rebounds – busting our butts on the rebounds, getting into a man and boxing out.”

Timberlake led by as many as six twice in the first half, but Priest River began its half-court zone trap and cut the second of those six-point leads to one at 22-21 just before the half on Dustin Lehman’s 14-footer and Smith’s floating 3-point buzzer-beater from the top of the key.

The Spartans, who forced 12 of the Tigers’ 22 turnovers in the second and third quarters, carried that momentum into the second half and led by as many as eight, 43-35, with less than a minute to go in the third.

Timberlake wasn’t done yet, however, and senior post Logan Cook tied it and put the Tigers ahead 48-47 with a pair of free throws midway through the fourth quarter.

The teams exchanged turnovers over a scoreless 2 minutes before Smith delivered the back-breaker on a feed from Lehman, a sweet inside spin move in the blocks and a kiss off the glass to put the Spartans back ahead 49-48 with just less than 2 minutes left.

The Tigers had two quality opportunities to take the lead in the final minute, taking and missing three shots on each of the possessions, but were unable to get any of them to fall.

Timberlake coach Gerald Ely, understandably emotional after the close loss – his team’s second in as many nights – shared what he told his Tigers after the game.

“I told them I was proud of them,” Ely said. “I just told them I was proud of them.”

Cook’s 14 points and 11 rebounds led Timberlake, which finishes its season at 7-15.