PREP BASKETBALL: Timberlake girls put it together, advance to state

•GIRLS

• 4A DISTRICT 1 

By JASON ELLIOTT 

Sports writer 

SPIRIT LAKE — Things are starting to come together for the Timberlake girls basketball team. 

Healthy, for the most part. 

And in position to challenge for the program’s fifth state championship, and first since 2021.

Junior guard Macy Murphey scored 20 points as the top-seeded Tigers beat the second-seeded Bonners Ferry Badgers 53-38 in the first game of the 4A District 1 best-of-3 championship series on Monday, advancing to the state tournament at Skyview High in Nampa starting next Thursday. 

“We were saying in the locker room that this is only our fifth game together this season with all of us playing together,” Timberlake senior Payton Young said. “We’re starting to figure out what everyone likes, passes and all that good stuff. We’re starting to figure each other out a lot more now.” 

Timberlake (14-6), by way of sweeping Bonners Ferry (10-9) in the regular season, advanced to state with Monday's victory. Had Bonners Ferry won, the best-of-3 series would have continued on Wednesday at Timberlake. 

It’s Timberlake’s 11th district title in 12 years, and fourth in a row.

“Our players work really hard and they’re very skilled,” Timberlake coach Matt Miller said. “We’ve had some girls that have transferred that have made a big deal, and the girls that we’ve had are really good. It’s been a tough deal getting everything to come together, but it’s starting to.” 

Senior Malia Miller, Matt's daughter, added 14 points, Young 10 for Timberlake. 

Junior Taren Bateman led Bonners Ferry with nine points.

Monday's victory was the 350th at Timberlake for Matt Miller, in his 21st season as Tigers coach. 

“I think it means I’ve had a lot of really good players that have done a really good job and played hard for the program,” Miller said. “It’s all about the players. They're the ones that are sweating, bleeding and making the shots. I’ve had some great ones, and feel extremely fortunate to get to coach that many. I’ve got one that I coached that’s getting married this weekend and I get to go to her wedding on Saturday.” 

Timberlake used a 13-4 run to start the second half to take a 40-23 lead midway through the third quarter. 

“I thought we came out of halftime ready to play,” Miller said. “We made a couple of buckets and we kind of got the lead to 19 and slowly let them come back into the game, and they did a good job of fighting back.” 

Bonners Ferry fought back to cut the deficit to 42-33 early in the fourth quarter. 

“It would have been nice to have a little bit of killer instinct in the third quarter,” Miller said. “We’d make a run, and they’d make a run and it ended up coming out in the wash.” 

"In the first half, we just kept fighting,” first-year Bonners Ferry coach Tomi Bateman said. “The bummer thing is that we made a bunch of mental errors that shouldn’t have put us in that deficit. We’ve got a few mental errors that we’ve got to fix and we’ll be a different team next year. We’ll keep building on this.” 

Bonners Ferry        11    8    12    7    —    38 

Timberlake        15    12    15    11    —    53 

BONNERS FERRY — T. Bateman 9, J. Bateman 7, Willis 6, Petersen 2, Warden 0, Thomson 2, Hill 4, Hiatt 8. 

TIMBERLAKE — Murphey 20, Ward 0, Young 10, Jezek 0, Archer 0, Mattson 0, Miller 14, Milligan 2, Cooper 0, Jones 0, Holecek 5. 

• 3A DISTRICT 1-2 

No. 2 seed Kellogg defeated No. 3 Orofino 63-37, and No. 1 Grangeville beat No. 4 Priest River 66-20 in the first round of the 3A District 1-2 tournament.

On Wednesday, Kellogg (13-9) plays at Grangeville (16-6) in the championship game, and Orofino (6-15) plays host to Priest River (8-9) in a loser-out game.

Both games are scheduled for 6 p.m.

• BOYS

Wallace 72 

Genesis Prep 27 

WALLACE — Sophomore Lennox Radford scored 19 of his game-high 27 points in the first half as the host Miners beat the Jaguars in Scenic Idaho Conference play. 

Sophomore Cooper Miller added 15 points for Wallace (9-9, 3-2 SIC), which plays host to Clark Fork on Wednesday. 

Sophomore Jacob Harris scored 10 points for Genesis Prep (3-12, 0-6), which plays host to Coeur du Christ on Wednesday. 

Genesis Prep     5    0    12    10    —    27 

Wallace     28    17    16    11    —    72 

GENESIS PREP — Harris 10, Green 6, W. Hernas 0, M. Hernas 0, Cosner 2, Siahaya 0, Van Meeteren 0, Walsh 9, Martin 0. 

WALLACE — Miller 15, Myles 6, Sodbot 4, Larson 4, Radford 27, McGillivray 4, Rose 2, Stone 2, Strange 2, Murray 4, Darg 2.