PRIEST RIVER — A 13-point halftime deficit was too much for Priest River girls basketball to overcome in the Spartan Christmas Tournament championship game against North Idaho Christian on Saturday.

The Spartans fell 52-31.

Head coach Gary Stewart said NIC is a tough squad that doesn’t miss when left open.

“We did not have our best defensive effort and we needed it because we could not get anything to fall on the inside,” he said.

Senior point guard Hannah Palfrey led the team with 10 points. Samantha Pound and Makia Fitzmorris each scored 5 and Lilly Freitas and Allyson Barton both tallied 4.

To advance to the tournament final, Priest River played its most complete game of the season last Friday against Clark Fork.

Priest River utilized a full-court press to shut down Clark Fork and pull away for a 57-28 win.

The Spartans forced 23 turnovers in the game and Freitas and Barton combined for 28 points.

"It was nice that we could rely on our full-court pressure to kind of distance ourselves from them," Stewart said after the game.

Clark Fork kept things close early and took a 10-9 lead after one quarter of action. Just a week ago, these two teams met at Clark Fork. In that game, Priest River jumped out to a commanding 14-1 first-quarter advantage en route to a 33-26 victory.

After the first quarter on Friday, Stewart said he asked his team if they were a little nervous and they admitted they were. He told them to relax and focus on defense, and it turned out pretty well.

"I just reminded them, 'Your defense will bring you back in games if you just believe in yourselves and make the effort,' so that was exciting for us," he said.

In the second quarter, the Spartans went on a 12-0 run to storm past the Lady Cats and take a 27-18 lead into the locker room. During that run, Freitas converted three steals into three buckets. She finished the night with 14 points, seven steals, five rebounds and three assists.

"That's what she offers our team is the ability to go get the ball," Stewart said about Freitas.

Priest River outscored Clark Fork 30-10 in the second half.

Clark Fork head coach Jordan Adams said the Spartans' press really impacted her team's ability to get in a rhythm offensively.

Last Thursday, Priest River played a JV game against Wallace and won 53-18. Stewart said that game gave his five freshmen and three sophomores a lot of confidence and they carried that into the contest with Clark Fork.

"They won big and that was an eye opener for them," he said.

Barton, a freshman, recorded a double-double, tallying 14 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Spartans. Pound had 10 points and four steals, sophomore Addison Kingery scored 8 points and Palfrey added 7 points and nine rebounds.

Following a lengthy break, Priest River (2-7) heads to North Idaho Christian on Monday, Jan. 4.

N.I. Christian 13 16 8 15 — 52

Priest River 4 12 7 8 — 31

NORTH IDAHO CHRISTIAN — Monaghan 0, Kelly 4, Garn 3, Pilgrim 6, Gwin 12, H. Malinauskas 2, Nelson 11, Connelly 0, Overturf 10, K. Malinauskas 6.

PRIEST RIVER — Rantala 1, Freitas 4, Pound 5, Fitzmorris 5, Thompson 0, Palfrey 10, Kingery 2, White 0, Barton 4, Shockey 0.

Clark Fork 10 8 7 3 — 28

Priest River 9 18 22 8 — 57

CLARK FORK — Matteson 9, Valliere 4, Myers 3, Shelton 1, Reuter 8, Yancey 2, Mace 1, Fournier 0.

PRIEST RIVER — Rantala 2, Freitas 14, Pound 10, Burgess-Duquette 0, Fitzmorris 0, Thompson 0, Palfrey 7, Kingery 8, White 0, Barton 14, Shockey 2.