STATE BOYS BASKETBALL: Sands steals, seals Lumberjacks' ninth straight trip to 2A semis

BOISE — Streaks are made to be broken.

But this isn’t that year for the St. Maries boys basketball team.

Senior Greyson Sands scored 22 points, including a 3-pointer to give the fourth-seeded Lumberjacks a 40-33 lead with 1:45 remaining in a 44-41 win over the fifth-seeded Ririe Bulldogs in the state 2A quarterfinals on Thursday at Capital High.

“I haven’t seen that kind of intensity out of him this year,” said St. Maries coach Bryan Chase of Sands, who also had four steals. “For his first three years, he was fighting for playing time. He always plays hard, but today I saw a whole different energy. He had some huge steals late as well.”

St. Maries (18-5) faces top-seeded Melba (24-0) in the semifinals tonight at 6 PST. It is the Lumberjacks ninth straight trip to the semifinals.

“Somehow, these guys never cease to amaze me,” Chase said. “We’ve had a lot of games where we’re not at our best, but they find a way.”

Ririe had a chance to tie the game with .1 seconds remaining, but the buzzer went off as a Bulldog player made a full-court shot.

“I had to look at the ref to make sure,” Chase said. “I thought there was no way they’re going to let him get that off. It was kind of a weird play, but sure enough, it went in too late.”

Ethan Miller scored 12 points for Ririe (20-5).

Ririe 4 13 8 16 — 41

St. Maries 6 9 10 19 — 44

RIRIE — Moss 1, Bybee 10, Miller 12, Larsen 4, Barber 2, Brown 5, Martinez 2. Totals 16-41 5-8 41.

ST. MARIES — Holmes 3, Sands 22, Badgett 0, Holder 7, Renner 2, Wicks 2, Hill 8. Totals 11-36 16-26 44.

Hillcrest 78

Lakeland 38

MERIDIAN — The defending state 4A champion Knights of Ammon limited the eighth-seeded Hawks to 11 second-half points in a quarterfinal game at Rocky Mountain High.

Senior Scotty Hocking scored 13 points for Lakeland (6-17), which faces fifth-seeded Twin Falls in a loser-out game today.

Kobe Kesler scored 23 points for Hillcrest (23-1), which faces Skyview in a semifinal game at the Ford Idaho Center today.

Lakeland 16 11 5 6 — 38

Hillcrest 22 15 19 22 — 78

LAKELAND — Nowell 0, Cameron 0, Ferguson 9, Ryan 2, Tebbe 0, Rothrock 0, Loutzenhiser 8, Hocking 13, Hensley 0, Anderson 4, Harris 2, Locke 0, Roth 0. Totals 15-50 5-14 38.

HILLCREST — Davis 14, Peninger 2, Trenkle 4, Larsen 4, Sutton 11, B. Taylor 2, Hepworth 2, Saunders 0, McCartney 3, Lords 0, Kesler 23, T. Taylor 2. Totals 31-59 6-10 78.

Kellogg 56

Cole Valley Christian 48

BOISE — Senior Riply Luna had 20 points and five rebounds for the sixth-seeded Wildcats, who used a 15-0 run in the fourth quarter to put away the third-seeded Chargers of Meridian in the quarterfinals of the state 2A tournament at Capital High.

“Everything that he got was within our offense tonight,” Kellogg coach Mike Martin said. “He wasn’t pressing on stuff and everything was in the flow of the offense. He really took advantage of his opportunities when they presented themselves.”

Kellogg (19-7) will face Bear Lake (23-2), the second seed, the first semifinal today at 4 p.m. Bear Lake defeated West Side 54-41 earlier on Thursday.

Senior Kolby Luna scored 15 for Kellogg, which scored 23 points in the fourth quarter to pull away.

“Defensively, we put some stops together,” Martin said. “It was a really resilient effort by our guys tonight. We just had some guys stepping up and making some plays when we needed them.”

Ben Beglinger scored 14 points for Cole Valley Christian.

Kellogg 13 9 11 23 — 56

C.V. Christian 10 14 12 12 — 48

KELLOGG — Miller 4, Whatcott 6, R. Luna 20, K. Luna 15, McLean 0, Maciosek 4, O’Neill 2, Hendrix 5. Totals 19-47 13-23 56.

COLE VALLEY CHRISTIAN — Holsinger 5, Graham 3, Beglinger 14, Overton 3, E. Kingery 13, Krogh 0, Kronstad 10. Totals 17-44 7-9 48.

Bonners Ferry 77

Buhl 58

MERIDIAN — Sophomore Thomas Bateman had 16 points and five rebounds for the top-seeded Badgers in a romp over the eighth-seeded Indians in the quarterfinals of the state 3A tournament at Meridian High.

Junior Trey Bateman scored 13 for Bonners Ferry (22-1), which shoots for its first appearance in a state title game tonight against Snake River (18-6). Snake River beat Homedale 64-54 earlier on Thursday.

Tate Trevino scored 14 points for Buhl (9-15).

Buhl 4 17 12 25 — 58

Bonners Ferry 12 31 18 16 — 77

BUHL — Trevino 14, Kelly 12, Allen 7, Kelsey 0, Villaro 4, Azevedo 0, Robles Pierce 12, Gorrell 2, Summy 0, Nye 2, Hunsaker 5, Machado 0, Waltman 0. Totals 22-46 8-17 58.

BONNERS FERRY — R. Williams 4, E. Blackmore 12, Rice 5, Henslee 3, Petesch 6, A. Williams 10, Th. Bateman 16, Hammons 0, Tr. Bateman 13, Schulte 0, Smith 0, B. Blackmore 8. Totals 27-50 12-18 77.

Richfield 67

Clark Fork 38

CALDWELL — The eighth-seeded Wampus Cats shot 16 of 34, but fell to the top-seeded Tigers in the quarterfinals of the state 1A Division II tournament at Caldwell High.

Nathan Shelton scored nine points for Clark Fork (13-9), which face fifth-seeded Council in a loser-out game tonight at 6 PST.

Luken Dalton scored 22 points for Richfield (21-4), which faces Watersprings (22-4) in a semifinal game today.

Clark Fork 0 13 7 18 — 38

Richfield 2 43 13 9 — 67

CLARK FORK — Holdeman 1, Ch. Sanroman 3, Co. Sanroman 2, Stevens 0, Matteson 0, Howard 2, Bailey 0, Montgomery 4, O. Howard 8, Caven 4, Shelton 9, Christofferson 4. Totals 16-34 6-13 38.

RICHFIELD — Telford 0, Fuchs 13, Barrott 2, A. Fuchs 0, Huffman 3, Kent 6, Newey 2, J. Fuchs 5, Benzeval 11, Dalton 22, Truman 0, Lucero 2. Totals 26-43 6-9 67.