The Bonners Ferry basketball team travelled to Kellogg this past weekend to compete in the Silver Valley Tournament. The Badger boys faced some stiff competition on Friday, Dec. 2 in the form of Wallace High School, and they ended up losing to the Miners 48-73. The Badgers then redeemed themselves on Saturday with a 68-40 win over the Mullan Tigers in the consolation round.

Both teams were off to a slow start in the first quarter of Friday night’s game, but the Badgers were able to outscore the Miners in the second quarter, giving them a 32-27 lead at halftime. Things started to turn sour for the Bonners Ferry team during the third quarter, however.

According to Badgers head coach Andy Rice, the Miners’ defense was stifling in the second half. “They began to full court press us towards the end of the second [quarter], which caused some problems for us,” Rice said. “And we didn’t make the adjustments that we talked about at half time,” he continued, “which resulted in several turnovers and easy baskets for Wallace.”

The Bonners Ferry offense crumpled under this defensive pressure, only putting up 16 points in the third and fourth quarters combined. By comparison, Wallace had 46 points in the second half, and 20 of those were in the fourth quarter alone.

Although Wallace deserves credit for their agressive play — and especially Zach Welch, who put up 21 in the game — injuries were perhaps the biggest stumbling block for Bonners Ferry in the second half.

Senior guard Caleb Harrington went out with a dislocated pinky finger in the third quarter. Harrington, who is typically one of the Badgers’ more dominant scorers, is an offensive leader out on the court, and the team started to come unglued without him. Coach Rice seemed to recognize this, and he told the Herald: “After Harrington’s injury it was hard to keep the players focused.”

As if that wasn’t enough, the Bonners Ferry team lost another crucial player in the fourth: junior forward Brady Bateman.

Bateman suffered a broken ring finger, and doctors say he will be unable to play for five to six weeks. Rice says that Harrington has an upcoming appointment with a specialist to get his pinky looked at, and that he is unsure how long Harrington might be out.

The two injuries forced the Badgers to regroup for their game against Mullan on Dec. 3. “We had to change up our lineup and a few of our guys got put in roles that they are not quite used to,” Coach Rice told the Herald.

Rice also said that it took awhile for his team to start clicking, but when they did, Mullan had a hard time keeping up.

“After halftime we came out and started to get to the rim more and put some pressure on them with our offense,” Rice said. “I thought our defense picked up and we pulled away in the second half.”

A few of Bonners Ferry’s players did a great job rising to the occasion. Junior point-guard Chris Sabin led the Badgers in scoring with 20 points, and senior Elijah Price was right behind him with 19 on the night.