• 3A

MERIDIAN - Nerves certainly weren't a problem for the Timberlake Tigers in their first appearance at the state boys basketball tournament since the school opened in 1998.

Overconfidence, apparently, was.

Timberlake got off to a terrific start, then relaxed a bit and eventually lost 59-55 to defending champion Fruitland in the first round of the state 3A tournament Thursday afternoon at Meridian High.

"We just got cocky," said Timberlake senior point guard Johnny Hayden, who hit a couple of 3-pointers in the first quarter, and finished with 20 points. We started not playing defense, and they got some easy buckets, and then we just got down on ourselves."

Timberlake (18-4) will play Buhl (14-11), a 38-37 loser to Snake River, today at 12:15 p.m. PST in a loser-out game.

Timberlake jumped out to a 21-15 lead after one quarter, and increased it to 25-17 early in the second. But Fruitland (18-5) closed the half on an 11-0 run, and steadily pulled away in the second half. The Grizzlies led by as much as 13 points in the fourth quarter before a flurry of 3s pulled Timberlake closer at the end.

"We started out hot; Johnny got out to a good start, Keegan (Scott) hit a couple big shots for us," Timberlake coach Tony Hanna said. "I almost think that was one of the problems was, it came easy for us at the beginning because we were so hot. And we didn't work the ball around as much as we should have offensively."

Scott hit three 3-pointers and added 15 points for Timberlake. Trevor Masterson added 10 points and six rebounds.

"They played really good defense against us," Hanna said. "They caused (19) turnovers, which is a lot for us. They did a good job putting pressure into us; they stayed relaxed, even when we got up on them. I think it came a little easy at the beginning and we got a little relaxed. But honestly, I was proud of our guys; we fought all the way to the end."

After going 11 of 22 from the field in the first half, Timberlake cooled off to 13 of 35 (37.1 percent) in the second half. Part of that was caused by in-your-face, man-to-man defensive pressure up all over the court by Fruitland that would have made its football team proud. And the refs let 'em play.

"I think they gave us more pressure defensively than we've seen all year," Hanna said. "They got out and tried to deny passing lanes, and got up into us more than we were used to. And we kept preaching to the guys, at the state tournament you're going to see bigger, stronger teams that are willing to play defense, and they just got us."

"They're a great defensive team, and it just leads to easy offense, and that's what they did," Hayden said.

Bryce Nattress, a 5-foot-11 senior guard, scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the second half for Fruitland. He also had seven steals.

"Our goal was to keep that kid (Nattress) in front of us, but that's a hard task," Hanna said. "He's got a good crossover, he's quick, and if we helped off too much, the other guys would finish."

Timberlake 21 4 9 21 - 55

Fruitland 15 13 12 19 - 59

TIMBERLAKE - Rice 0, Cramer 0, McNamara 6, Masterson 10, Hayden 20, Foster 0, Blayne 0, Scott 15, Allen 0, Thompson 4. Totals 24-57 0-2 55.

FRUITLAND - Nattress 23, LaCrone 2, Huff 0, Graves 9, Seamons 5, Mahler 1, Olinger 6, Eiguren 0, Van Patten 0, Little 5, Stanger 4, Rhinehart 4. Totals 20-62-16-30 59.

* 1A Division II

CALDWELL - Jake Pfeiffer had 17 points and 16 rebounds for the Kootenai Warriors, who lost 50-37 to the Carey Panthers in the opening round of the state 1A Division II tournament at Caldwell High.

Kootenai (8-11) will face Sho-Ban (16-4) in a loser-out game tonight at 5:15 p.m. PST

Kootenai led 17-8 after the first quarter, but was outscored 42-20 in the final three quarters.

Nate Adamson scored 23 points for Carey (16-9), which faces Salmon River (23-1) in the semifinals today.

Carey 8 15 10 17 - 50

Kootenai 17 4 7 9 - 37

CAREY - Dilworth 8, Parke 13, Koudelka 0, Thompson 0, Hansen 2, Adamson 23, Garcia 0, Whitworth 4, Baird 0, Gamino 0, Andrews 0. Totals 23-61 4-9 50.

KOOTENAI - Butler 0, Napierala 0, Whipple 6, Mo. Willms 5, Benson 7, Ma. Willms 2, Desautel 0, Pfeiffer 17, Schultz 0. Totals 14-41 7-20 37.