By MARK NELKE

Sports writer

NAMPA — The St. Maries Lumberjacks came up short in their bid to repeat as state 2A champions, but it wasn’t for lack of effort.

Despite a poor shooting night, the Lumberjacks scrapped and clawed and dived on the floor, contesting everything the Melba Mustangs tried to do, before finally waving the white flag with 19.8 seconds left.

“We never give up,” St. Maries senior forward Colby Renner said after the Lumberjacks fell to Melba 59-50 in the state title game Saturday afternoon at the Ford Idaho Center. “Down 15, we’re still pushing to come back … maybe hit a couple of 3s … we truly thought we were coming back.”

But shooting 36.2% (21 of 58) from the field stalled any attempts at a comeback for St. Maries (20-4), and Melba (24-2) went on to win its first state title since 2011.

“They have such a will to win, and never-give-up attitude,” said St. Maries coach Bryan Chase, whose team was in the state title game for the third time in four years. “That’s what I’m most proud of … down 15, got within striking distance … and we were a couple of possessions away from … who knows what happens? That just says a lot about those kids, and how hard they play.”

Senior Tristan Gentry-Nelson had 11 points and 10 rebounds for St. Maries, and guard Greyson Sands added 12 points. Senior Coleman Ross had eight points and seven boards.

Gentry-Nelson and Ross started on last year’s title team.

“A sense of unfulfillment,” said Gentry-Nelson, who has been talking to area colleges about possibly continuing his basketball career. “We felt like we should have been here all year, and we got here, and it just seems like we dropped the ball. It was winnable, but not enough stuff went our way tonight.”

Joe Reiber, a 6-foot-2 senior swingman, scored 16 of his game-high 20 points in the second half for Melba. Junior guard Braden Volkers added 14 points and Cache Beus, a 6-4 sophomore post, had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Senior Dillon Stosich scored all six of his points — and Melba’s first six points — in the first three minutes, and the Mustangs jumped out to a 9-3 lead.

St. Maries took a 12-11 lead early in the second quarter on a 3 by Sands, but Melba answered with an 11-0 run and never trailed again. With the clock winding down, Volkers tossed in a 3 just before the buzzer for a 25-16 halftime lead.

“In the first half we forced it a little, and took some tough shots,” Chase said. “They trapped us quite a bit, and we didn’t handle that pressure very well. They’ve got a great group of athletes, and they just forced our hand a little bit in that first half.”

Melba increased its lead to 15 points on several occasions in the second half, but St. Maries wouldn’t go away, running off eight straight points, including 3s by Connor Wolfe (which nearly turned into a four-point play) and Ross, to cut it to 57-50 with some 40 seconds left before time eventually ran out on the Lumberjacks.

“It just felt like we were spinning our wheels all night long, trying to get some traction,” Chase said. “If we could have made one of those runs a little earlier … “

“They’re a great team,” fourth-year Melba coach Spencer Trappett said of St. Maries. “I thought they were tired, and I thought we could use that to our ability, and get the ball up and down the floor. Great coach, great program. They could have won it anyway, and once we got ahead, I thought that kinda took it out of them, took the fight out of them, but they stuck with it the whole game. They play hard and they get after it, and they do it year after year after year.”

Gentry-Nelson played quite a bit as a freshman on the state runner-up team of 2019. Renner, Ross and Sean Elliott were brought up from the junior varsity late in that season, and Wolfe joined the mix last year.

The last four years at state, St. Maries finished second, third, first and second.

“Those seniors, I know they’re upset, but they’ve got so much to be proud of, with four state trophies in four years, and to make three trips to play on this (Idaho Center) floor,” Chase said. “I told them, ‘Hold your heads high, because you have so much to be proud of.’”

Melba 11 14 17 17 — 59

St. Maries 9 7 15 19 — 50

MELBA — Orozco 0, Stimpson 0, Shaffer 0, West 0, Stosich 6, Dayley 4, Riste 0, Fahey 0, Lowber 4, Volkers 14, Beus 11, Reiber 20. Totals 21-49 13-25 59.

ST. MARIES — Gentry-Nelson 11, Sands 12, Badgett 5, Ross 8, Wolfe 5, Holder 0, Holmes 0, Elliott 2, Ballew 0, Wicks 2, Gibson 0, C. Renner 2, Swallows 0, Hill 3. Totals 21-58 3-7 50.