MERIDIAN - Snake River outscored St. Maries 19-9 in the fourth quarter to earn a 48-47 win to advance to the state 3A boys basketball semifinals today at Meridian High.

St. Maries led by as many as 12 points before being outscored 22-9 in the final nine minutes. Snake River forced 23 St. Maries turnovers in the win, while only committing nine on Thursday.

"We really outplayed them," St. Maries coach Jeff Mercer said. "We started to run out of gas in the fourth quarter. We played tough defense all game, our guards were in a full-court press to slow them down. It was kind of a catch-22 - because we ran them out of gas."

Zach Lehman had 17 points for St. Maries (12-9), which faces Fruitland (16-7) today in a loser-out game at 12:15 p.m. St. Maries outrebounded Snake River 35-23 in the game, led by senior Seth Patzer with seven rebounds.

"We boxed out really well," Mercer said. "Just late in the game, our kids weren't going to the ball. We stayed in an offense that we were familiar with after they'd made adjustments. Our kids worked their butts off."

Dallin Truman had 13 points for the Panthers (19-4), who face Salmon (19-5) today in a semifinal game at 5:15 p.m.

St. Maries 12 13 13 9 - 47

Snake River 10 9 10 19 - 48

ST. MARIES - Patzer 6, Sampson 3, Cordell 0, Guidry 0, Heath 14, Lehman 17, Mercer 5, Joiner 2. Totals 19-38 7-10 47.

SNAKE RIVER - Reece 5, Trejo 2, Keller 4, C. Watt 12, Toulouse 6, Truman 13, Hrabik 0, M. Harper 6. Totals 18-50 8-14 48.

Priest River 62

Homedale 51

MERIDIAN - Jake Weimer scored 20 of his game-high 27 points as the Spartans defeated the Trojans to advance to today's 3A semifinals at Meridian High.

Priest River led by as many as 15 points in the first half and outrebounded Homedale 50-41, setting up a matchup with defending 3A champion Shelley tonight at 7.

Walter Almarez had 19 points for Homedale (13-11), which faces Filer today in a loser-out game at 2 p.m.

Homedale 13 13 9 16 - 51

Priest River 21 12 13 16 - 62

HOMEDALE - Almarez 19, Tolmie 0, Ryska 6, Harrell 4, Gonzalez 4, Landa 0, Esparza 8, Corta 6, Mereness 0, Kennedy 3, Stacy 0, Gibson 1. Totals 18-64 7-12 51.

PRIEST RIVER - Barrett 5, Simpkins 0, Douglas 1, Bach 0, Salesky 10, Holbrook 9, Weimer 27, Willig 4, Yount 6, Payment 0. Totals 20-54 18-28 62.

1A Division II

Dietrich 70

Kootenai 53

CALDWELL - Kolton Hubert had 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the foul line as the Blue Devils defeated the Warriors in the opening round of the 1A Division II tournament at Caldwell High.

Kootenai was outrebounded 55-29 in the game and shot 18 of 54 from the floor.

"Our biggest thing was the nerves," Kootenai coach Andrew Whipple said. "That was one of my biggest fears coming into the tournament because nobody had played at state before. We came out real tight and missed shots we should have made. They killed us on the boards. It was really a case of nerves and not being physical enough."

Andrew Rocha had 18 rebounds and 16 points for the Blue Devils (19-8), who advance to face Carey (22-2) in today's semifinals at 1:15 p.m. PST.

"He's been averaging a ton of points," Whipple said of Rocha. "All his points tonight were real quiet. He'd been getting 22-25 points - but we played really good defense on him. They (Dietrich) had a good gameplan and others stepped up and did some things. They were pretty balanced."

Taylor Dodson had 13 points for Kootenai (12-10), which faces Mackay (18-3) today in a loser-out game at 5:15 p.m.

Hayden Kraack had eight rebounds for Kootenai.

Dietrich 21 21 11 17 - 70

Kootenai 16 10 16 11 - 53

DIETRICH - Astle 0, Bingham 0, Liu G 19, Perron 0, Norman 4, J. Howard 6, Weber 2, Vargas 0, Hubert 20, A. Howard 0, Rocha 16, Hansen 3. Totals 26-65 16-22 70.

KOOTENAI - J. Zarpentine 7, D. Zarpentine 11, Myhre 0, Wallace 10, Dodson 13, Carman 0, Whipple 0, Kraack 10, Reynolds 0, Law 0, Sheppard 0, Bornitz 2. Totals 18-54 16-25 53.