Spartans come up short against Kellogg

PRIEST RIVER — Priest River boys basketball was handed its first league loss Friday night.

Kellogg earned a 60-50 Intermountain League victory over the Spartans.

It was the first matchup between the two teams since Priest River took down the Wildcats in the 2021 3A District 1 title game to advance to state for the first time in 10 years.

"Kellogg outplayed us," head coach Jaden Barrett said. "To be honest, they were the better team tonight."

The Spartans displayed some rust in their first game since Jan. 15.

"Thirteen days since we played with all of the cancellations," Barrett said, "and we had a full week where we didn't practice, so it definitely showed. We were out of shape and kind of out of sync."

Priest River trailed 20-12 after one quarter and was never able to recover.

Kellogg was 18-of-20 from the free-throw line.

Despite the loss, Barrett was proud of his team's effort.

"We fought hard until the end, it was just too little, too late," he said.

Trentyn Kreager scored a game-high 24 points. Travis Mathews tallied 9 points, Luke Butler had 7 and Jace Yount 6.

Priest River (8-6, 1-1 IML) travels to St. Maries at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Kellogg 20 8 17 15 — 60

Priest River 12 11 17 10 — 50

KELLOGG — Miller 0, Whatcott 10, R. Luna 10, K. Luna 21, McLean 2, Groves 15, Frohlich 9, Walker 0.

PRIEST RIVER — Mathews 9, Butler 7, Kreager 24, Marinello 0, Barrett 3, Z. Engelson 0, Berns 0, Thompson 1, Yount 6.