PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: St. Maries, Wallace, Kootenai advance to district title games

ST. MARIES — The fourth-seeded Priest River Spartans tried a box-and-one defense in the first half on St. Maries senior JJ Yearout, who eclipsed the 1,000-point mark earlier this season, and is now No. 6 on the Lumberjacks’ all-time scoring list. 

But that box just opened up the middle of the key for St. Maries senior Isaiah Gustaffe, who scored all 15 of his points in the first half as the top-seeded Lumberjacks beat the Spartans 67-39 in the first round of the 3A District 1-2 tournament. 

“We’ve certain been seeing it (a gimmick defense) more often lately; we’ve put some more things in, and run ‘J’ off of screens,” St. Maries coach Bryan Chase said. Plus we have a good support staff around J, with Isaiah and Xavier (Sloper) and Landon (Riberich), we have a lot of options.” 

Yearout finished with 16 points, six assists and five steals for St. Maries (17-3), which will play host to No. 2 seed Orofino (17-4) on Wednesday at 6 in the championship game. 

Priest River (5-14) will travel to No. 3 Kellogg (11-11) on Wednesday at 6 in a loser-out game. 

Sloper had 11 points — nine in the third quarter — and seven rebounds for St. Maries, which shot 57% (25 of 43) from the field. Jack Barta also scored 11 points, and Brock Barta hit 4 of 5 from the field and chipped in eight points off the bench.  

Madden Redinger led Priest River with 12 points. 

Priest River     5    14    12    8    —    39 

St. Maries     21    18    23    5    —    67 

PRIEST RIVER — Matthews 0, Barth 0, Redinger 12, Best 8, Simcox 7, Collins 2, Hatten 7, Strange 0. 

ST. MARIES — Harold 3, Dickison 0, Pugh 0, J. Barta 11, Yearout 16, Gustaffe 15, B. Barta 8, Riberich 2, Chatigny 0, Speakman 0, Hammons 1, Sloper 11, Vereb 0, Blackwell 0. 

Orofino 54 

Kellogg 40 

OROFINO — After the third-seeded Wildcats cut the deficit to 28-26 early in the third quarter, the second-seeded Maniacs pulled away with a 24-5 run, highlighted by four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, in the first- round game of the 3A District 1-2 tournament. 

“We were 4 for 24 from 3, and our shot selection in the second half was not great,” Kellogg coach Mike Martin said. “We just pressed a little too much trying to get a spark, and that just played into what they want to do; they want to play fast.”  

Draeden Taylor, Ty Cheney and Evan Vindasius scored six points each for Kellogg (11-11), which will play host to fourth-seeded Priest River (5-14) on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in a loser-out game.  

Blake Barlow scored 15 points, Quinton Naranjo 10 for Orofino (17-4), which plays at top-seeded St. Maries (17-3) on Wednesday at 6 for the district title and a berth to state. 

The two remaining teams will play Friday for the district’s second berth to state. 

“We knew coming in that we were going to have to win two games this week,” Martin said. “This doesn’t change our outlook; we still have an opportunity to get to state.” 

Kellogg     10    8    10    12    —    40 

Orofino     14    12    10    18    —    54 

KELLOGG — Coburn 5, Roach 0, McDonald 0, Taylor 6, A. Lewis 2, Bowman 0, P. Lewis 4, Honnerlaw 4, Reed 2, Cheney 6, Vindasius 6, Kimstayton 5. 

OROFINO — Runia 8, Bonner 9, Schneider 8, McCorkle 2, Connolly 2, Carlock 0, Barlow 15, Turcott 0, Johnson 0, Deyo 0, Naranjo 10. 

Bonners Ferry 70 

Timberlake 48 

BONNERS FERRY — The Tigers’ season came to an end with the loss to the host Badgers in the first game of a best-of-3 series for the 4A District 1 title. 

Since Bonners Ferry swept Timberlake 2-0 in Intermountain League play, the Badgers needed only to win the first game of the series to advance. Bonners (12-8) will play in a state play-in game Saturday at 3 p.m. at Grangeville vs. the third-place finisher from District 3. 

Senior Brant Rush scored 18 points, senior Max Simpson 14 points and 12 rebounds for Timberlake, which finished 7-14. 

“We had a slow start in first half; it felt like there was a lid on our hoop,” first-year Timberlake coach Juston Henry said. “They did a good job with getting deflections and steals that really grew their lead. We had a decent second half, but put ourselves in too big of a hole to come back from. The boys kept their heads up and finished strong.”  

Ty Schrock scored 23 points, Peyton Hinthorn and Sulay Abubakari 16 each for Bonners Ferry, the two-time reigning state champion, which won its fifth straight district title. 

Timberlake     6    4    18    20    —    48 

Bonners Ferry     13    17    22    18    —    70 

TIMBERLAKE — Shively 0, Montes 2, Simpson 14, Van Gundy 9, Vallieres 2, Hiaasen 1, Rush 23, Smith 0, Barnhart 0, Martin 2. 

BONNERS FERRY — Schrock 23, Stolley 0, Hart 0, Buckhanan 0, Hinthorn 16, Waymer 0, Allred 5, Scarborough 0, Abubakari 16, Thompson 6, Cartwright-Kissee 4. 

Wallace 64 

Clark Fork 54 

COEUR d’ALENE — Sophomore Cooper Miller hit five 3-pointers and scored 28 points as the second-seeded Miners beat the third-seeded Wampus Cats in the semifinal of the 2A District 1 tournament at North Idaho College’s Rolly Williams Court. 

Sophomore Lennox Radford added 16 points for Wallace (12-9), which plays top-seeded Lakeside (18-2) tonight at 7 at NIC for the district title and the district’s lone berth to state. 

Owen Howard scored 17 of his 21 points in the first half for Clark Fork, which finished 9-9. Jesse Yanik hit five 3-pointers and added 15 points for the Wampus Cats. 

Clark Fork     9    19    14    12    —    54 

Wallace     21    15    13    15    —    64 

CLARK FORK — Howard 21, Caven 6, Yanik 15, Stevens 2, Hudson 7, Noble 4. 

WALLACE — Miller 28, Sodbat 6, Larson 2, Williams 7, McCillivray 3, Radford 16, Myles 2, Rose 0, Murray 0. 

Kootenai 49 

Mullan 32 

COEUR d’ALENE — Junior Aiden Braz totaled 16 points, six rebounds and three steals as the second-seeded Warriors beat the third-seeded Tigers in the semifinal of the 1A District 1 tournament at North Idaho College’s Rolly Williams Court. 

Sophomore Dylan Gentry added 15 points and 12 rebounds for Kootenai (4-12), which plays top-seeded Coeur du Christ (13-6) tonight at 5 at NIC in the championship game for the district’s lone berth to state. 

Senior Riley Ausman had 14 points and 18 rebounds for Kootenai. 

Sophomore Cael Sala scored 18 points for Mullan, which finished 2-11. 

Mullan     9    12    5    6    —    32 

Kootenai     13    18    12    6    —    49 

MULLAN — Imes 2, Sala 18, Bosson 7, Calvert 1, Ullrich 4, Wilson 0.  

KOOTENAI — Braz 16, Ausman 14, Derry 2, Gentry 15, Edwards 2, Moore 0, Myers 0.