NAMPA — It was nearly the coast-to-coast trip of a lifetime for the St. Maries Lumberjacks.

They had the guy they wanted with the ball, and one of the shots they thought they could get out of the play.

But a driving layup try from the left side by sophomore Eli Gibson bounced off the backboard, rolled tantalizingly on the rim for a moment before falling off at the buzzer at the end of regulation.

St. Maries then managed just two points in overtime, and the North Fremont Huskies won their first state title with a 45-37 victory over the Lumberjacks in the state 2A high school boys basketball game Saturday afternoon at the Ford Idaho Center.

“A game of inches, isn’t it?,” St. Maries coach Bryan Chase said. “It was exactly what we wanted. We knew he could get to the rim in 5.9 seconds. He’s our best finisher, and we put the ball in his hands, and had Jackson (Pritchard) in the corner; one of them’s going to be open.”

“I thought it was going to go in … it just didn’t fall that time,” said St. Maries senior post Dan Howard, who finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

“I thought it was going in,” North Fremont coach Shannon Hill said. “They beat us in football a couple years ago in the playoffs, and we were hoping to get a little back on them.”

“That kid will make that shot 99 out of 100 times,” said Chase, who has taken the Lumberjacks to state in each of his five seasons as head coach. “And it just hung on the rim.”

St. Maries (19-8) was trying to win its first state boys basketball title since 1960, and was playing in its first state title game since 1987.

In the extra four-minute period, the Lumberjacks did not score a basket. Garrett Hawkes, a 6-3 senior who scored 53 points in the Huskies’ first two state tourney games, opened the scoring in overtime with a turnaround jumper in the land.

Coy Sands answered with a free throw for St. Maries, but Hawkes drew a foul call while trying to post up, and hit both ends of a one-and-one. Gibson sank a free throw to pull St. Maries within 39-37 with 2:01 left. But the Lumberjacks missed shots on each of their next four possessions, and North Fremont (20-6), of Ashton in eastern Idaho, hit six straight free throws to pull away.

“It was hard to get them fired back up again for a few minutes,” Chase said of the overtime. “Seems like they went to work right away, and we were still kind of in a lull there.”

But just to get to that point required a certain amount of mental and physical toughness on the part of the Lumberjacks — both earlier in the postseason, then after a slow first half.

St. Maries made just 4 of 20 field goals in the first half, and trailed 23-13 at the intermission. Hawkes scored 14 of his game-high 22 in the first half — but was held to just one basket and four points in the third and fourth quarters, mostly due to the defense of senior Coy Sands.

“We definitely got a little more physical,” Chase said. “We knew we had to stop Hawkes. We might have overplayed him a little bit early and got backdoored a few times … great job on him with team defense in the second half. He makes them go, for sure.”

Tyler Lohman, who finished with 11 points and six rebounds, and then Sands were in charge of containing Hawkes.

“Coy has just done a great job of taking their best player out of the equation all year long,” Chase said.

“That’s one thing that teams don’t like, is the physicality,” Howard said.

St. Maries got back in the game with an 8-0 run in the third period. Howard scored five straight points, including a three-point play, and Lohman’s 3-pointer cut North Fremont’s lead to 27-24.

Howard scored inside with 6 minutes to play to give St. Maries its first lead since early at 30-29, and a 3 by senior guard Jackson Pritchard made it 33-31 Lumberjacks with 4:46 left.

St. Maries went up 35-33 on two free throws by Gibson with 2:32 left, then Hawkes dropped the ball down low to Blake Oberhansley for the tying basket with 2:20 left. Oberhansley scored eight of his 10 points in the second half and OT.

With the clock winding down in regulation, the ‘Jacks forced Hawkes into a missed 10-footer. Howard rebounded, and St. Maries called timeout with 5.9 ticks left.

“They play basketball the right way — they’re tough, hard-nosed,” Hall said of St. Maries. “They worried me because of their athleticism and physicality. And what’s good about them is, they keep their poise too. I have a lot of respect for that program; they’ve worried me all year — them and Grangeville.”

Hawkes finished with six rebounds, four blocked shots and three steals. He was 7 of 12 from the field, 8 of 10 from the line.

St. Maries beat Grangeville, the Central Idaho League champion, in the deciding game of a best-of-3 series to earn the district’s lone berth to state.

Hall praised the physical way St. Maries defended Hawkes and the Huskies, particularly in the second half.

“The refs let ’em play today, and that’s the way basketball is in the modern-day era,” Hall said. “We were able to play through it somehow, and got the victory.”

St. Maries finished 12 of 50 (24 percent) from the field, including 2 of 17 from 3-point range. St. Maries out rebounded North Fremont 38-24, including 18-3 on the offensive glass.

During a slight break in the action with 6.8 seconds left in overtime, and the outcome decided, Pritchard came over to the bench to console senior point guard Kaden Hammond, who fouled out with 2:24 left in regulation, and Howard, who was seated next to him.

“It was pretty sad, coming up that short,” Sands said. “But to make it this far; no one thought we’d make it this far. It was just unbelievable to be here in the Idaho Center … crazy.”

St. Maries 11 2 13 9 2 — 37

North Fremont 9 14 6 6 10 — 45

ST. MARIES — Hill 0, Pritchard 5, Nelson 2, Lohman 11, Sands 4, Gibson 3, Hammond 0, Howard 12. Totals 12-50 11-16 37.

NORTH FREMONT — Hess 0, Oberhansley 10, B. Lenz 4, Hansen 6, Hill 0, Hawkes 22, Wynn 3, J. Lenz 0. Totals 14-34 16-21 45.