RATHDRUM - After watching from home as a pair of their Intermountain League rivals battled for the state 3A girls basketball title last year, the Timberlake Tigers knew they'd missed out on a chance to make some history.

That was then - this is now.

Senior Cassie Thompson scored a game-high 22 points as the Tigers won their first district girls basketball championship in school history with a 48-27 win over the Priest River Spartans at Lakeland High's Hawk Court on Thursday.

"We're really excited about getting back to state," Timberlake coach Matt Miller said. "We've got three players back from that team that was down there two years ago. Hopefully we'll be able to have a better showing than before."

Timberlake (18-4) opens state tournament play on Thursday at Skyview High in Nampa against Fruitland at 2 p.m. PST.

Timberlake, which lost in the last two district title games, held Priest River to 12 second-half points and nine field goals for the game.

"We played really well on both sides of the ball tonight," Miller said. "Our kids came ready to play a full 32 minutes of basketball tonight and were determined to get a win."

Priest River (12-10), the defending state champs, will face Bonners Ferry, which defeated Kellogg 62-46 earlier Thursday in the district's second-place game Saturday at 11 a.m. at Hawk Court.

Thompson, named the Intermountain League's MVP prior to the title game, scored 12 of her 22 points from the foul line for Timberlake.

"We played our best team defense of the year tonight," said Thompson, who has signed to play at Portland next year. "My sophomore year, they beat us in the district title game so we had to get them back. That's all that matters right now."

Timberlake fell to Priest River 44-41 in the regular season finale last Saturday in Priest River.

"They got 42 percent of their points off second-chance points against us last week," Miller said. "We came into the game focused and tried to limit their second chances tonight."

Guards Steffie Pavey and Morgan Stewart led Priest River with seven points apiece.

“We got outplayed and outhustled in every aspect of basketball tonight,” said Priest River coach Gary Stewart, the IML coach of the year.

The loss snaps an eight-game win streak for Priest River, which has been without 2010 Intermountain League MVP Melissa Hopkins, who tore her ACL during volleyball season and has been out for the year. Hopkins has signed with Lewis-Clark State to play basketball next season.

“It’s been a transition we’ve had to deal with all season,” Stewart said. “The good thing is we’ve still got a shot. You can learn a lot from a loss.”

Priest River 6 9 3 9 — 27

Timberlake 13 11 12 12 — 48

PRIEST RIVER — Luckey 0, Weimer 2, Trost 2, Pavey 7, Stewart 7, Oscarson 2, Bradbury 1, Doolittle 0, Halcro 6, Hirst 0.

TIMBERLAKE — Wenstrom 5, Norlander 0, Malloy 4, Mason 0, Hoffman 0, Nichols 11, Thompson 22, Peters 4, George 2, Gibson 0.

Bonners Ferry 62, Kellogg 46: Amy Andrews scored a game-high 18 points for the Badgers (5-17) as they eliminated the Wildcats (8-14).

Marah Ashcraft scored 12 points for Kellogg, last year’s state runner-up.

Kellogg 10 9 12 15 — 46

Bonners Ferry 20 14 13 15 — 62

KELLOGG — Garner 1, Pouttu 2, Flores 4, Huber 0, Stewart 8, Rainio 0, Sheppard 2, Arthur 7, Reed 10, Hadley 0, Ashcraft 12.

BONNERS FERRY — Andrews 18, Merrifield 4, Porter 6, Riley 6, Gust 6, Taggart 3, Acord 14, Wasmer 2.

ALL-INTERMOUNTAIN LEAGUE TEAM

COACH OF THE YEAR — Gary Stewart, Priest River.

TIMBERLAKE — Cassie Thompson, sr. (MVP), Kara Wenstrom, jr., Caitlyn Nichols, sr. PRIEST RIVER — Steffie Pavey, so., Holly Hirst, sr., Liz Halcro, jr. BONNERS FERRY — Markayle Acord, sr. ST. MARIES — Tia Asbury, sr., Dusti Huddleston, jr. KELLOGG — Marah Ashcraft, sr.