Priest River caps its winter sweep

NAMPA – Fifteen days ago, Priest River High School didn’t have a state championship in a major sport to its name.

Now, the Spartans have two. Two weeks after the girls basketball team captured the first state title in school history, the boys claimed their first championship with a 79-65 victory over Salmon on Saturday at the Idaho Center.

Senior post Jake Weimer scored 28 points and junior guard Eric Holbrook added 23 as the Spartans (22-3) blew open a close game by outscoring the Savages 46-33 in the second half.

“It’s really special, especially because the girls did it this year, too,” Weimer said. “My freshman year, there was a whole different mentality at our school, but I think we’ve managed to turn it around to a winning mentality.”

Priest River, which entered the tournament with the best record in the 3A field, defeated Homedale 62-51 in Thursday’s opener and knocked off Shelley 60-49 in Friday’s semifinal.

The title game was close for the first 20 minutes before Weimer started taking over with an array of inside moves and midrange jumpers.

“We hit a few shots and it loosened up their zone a little bit,” Priest River coach Ryan Bodecker said. “Jake Weimer is a great player when you get him the ball in the high post, and we did a good job of that.”

Holbrook and Max Salesky did most of the damage from the perimeter for the Spartans. Salesky finished with 15 points and Holbrook nailed three first-half 3-pointers that helped free up Weimer inside.

“We played great tonight,” Holbrook said. “Jake played great, we hit some key 3s and moved the ball well. It’s a great feeling. Awesome. Just unbelievable.”

Holbrook, who played all 32 minutes, also drew the task of guarding Trey Infanger. Salmon’s star senior had a couple of scoring bursts but made 8 of 23 field-goal attempts and finished with 23 points.