RATHDRUM - When Garret Wendt and his hot hand had to go to the bench with two fouls early in the second quarter, you wouldn't have been surprised to see the Kellogg Wildcats cool down.

Instead, they heated up with Wendt on the bench, expanding a two-point lead to a 12-point halftime lead, and went on to beat the St. Maries Lumberjacks 68-61 in the championship game of the 3A District 1 boys basketball tournament Thursday night at Lakeland High's Hawk Court.

"We're 10 deep - it's hard to defend us," said Wendt, who finished with a game-high 24 points. "It was a great team effort."

Kellogg (18-4) advances to state for the first time since the Wildcats last won the district title, in 2008. Kellogg will open vs. Weiser (18-5), the second-place team from District 3, next Thursday at 7 p.m. PST at Meridian High.

St. Maries (17-5), which had beaten Kellogg twice en route to the Intermountain League title, will play Timberlake (15-7) tonight at 6 at Lakeland for the district’s second berth to state. Timberlake eliminated Bonners Ferry (9-13) with a 72-49 victory.

Kellogg 68, St. Maries 61: Wendt, a junior, made all four of his 3-point attempts in the first quarter. He had 12 points when he picked up his second foul with 7:16 left in the half, and sat the rest of the half. Ryan McDonald scored eight of his 20 points during that stretch, as the Wildcats boosted their lead from 22-20 to 34-22 at the half.

“This is a great team right here — it took all 10 players,” said Kellogg coach Jeff Lambert, who coached the Kellogg girls to the state championship game two years ago. “We played better defense tonight, and if you noticed, when they were shooting, they were deep — we weren’t just giving it to them. Garret got a couple cheap fouls, but we had people step up off the bench.”

Kellogg led by as many as 14 points twice in the second half, the second time at 57-43 with just over 6 minutes left.

But Austin Linnemeyer and Rhett Ryle each hit two 3-pointers in a 16-3 run that pulled the Lumberjacks within 62-59 with just under 2 minutes left, but Kellogg was able to seal the win from the free throw line.

“They’re playing great basketball right now,” St. Maries coach Craig Wicks said of Kellogg. “They’ve got a lot of energy, they’re up and down the floor, and they just crash the boards so hard ... they were the better team tonight, and hopefully we can bounce back. There’s still one more spot to state. ... We had too many empty possessions.”

Ryle hit five 3s and led St. Maries with 19 points. Linnemeyer also made five 3s and finished with 15 points. For the game, the Lumberjacks were 11 of 25 from behind the arc. Kellogg was 6 of 15 on 3s.

Lambert said the game would be won inside, and the Wildcats controlled the boards, with McDonald and Tyler Morgan each grabbing eight rebounds.

“We’re all in together,” McDonald said. “Kellogg basketball is tough, aggressive ... it’s not easy.”

Kellogg 20 14 15 19 — 68

St. Maries 17 5 18 21 — 61

KELLOGG — Garner 0, Wendt 24, Hulstrom 2, Reed 0, Beggerly 7, Serrano 6, Stull 0, Morgan 9, McDonald 20.

ST. MARIES — Joiner 8, Sampson 0, Schetzle 11, Kennelly 0, Ryle 19, Linnemeyer 15, Cordell 2, McMaster 6.

Timberlake 72, Bonners Ferry 49: Trevor Masterson scored 14 points to lead four players into double figures as the Tigers beat the Badgers in a loser-out game.

Alex Awbrey scored a game-high 15 points for Bonners.

Bonners Ferry 10 16 12 11 — 49

Timberlake 13 17 18 24 — 72

BONNERS FERRY — Price 0, Skeen 2, Clausen 4, Fitch 0, Zarate 13, Woods 10, Evans 0, Moe 3, Pluid 2, Amoth 0, Farrens 0, Awbrey 15.

TIMBERLAKE — Rice 0, Cronnelly 11, Masterson 14, Hayden 10, Foster 0, Blayne 5, Scott 6, Page 8, Allen 0, Thompson 8, Cramer 10.

ALL-INTERMOUNTAIN LEAGUE

ST. MARIES — Satchel Schetzle, sr. (MVP); Warren Joiner, jr.; Austin Linnemeyer, jr. BONNERS FERRY — Andre Zarate, sr. KELLOGG — Ryan McDonald, sr.; Garret Wendt, jr.; Tyler Morgan, sr. PRIEST RIVER — Dalton Sommer, jr. TIMBERLAKE — Brian Cronnelly, sr.; Trevor Masterson, jr.

COACH OF THE YEAR — Tony Hanna, Timberlake.

1A Division II District 1 tourney: The host Clark Fork Wampus Cats (4-14) beat the Mullan Tigers 43-31 to advance to the championship game on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Kootenai (6-12). Mullan finishes 0-17.