Badgers capture 3A District 1 title, Priest River stays alive

COEUR d'ALENE — Bonners Ferry junior Matt Rice came up with a huge steal with a little less than a minute to play, made 3 of 4 free throws down the stretch and made the final basket of the game to lead the Badgers to the 3A District 1 championship Thursday night at Christianson Gym at North Idaho College.

The 6-foot-2 Badger wing scored 10 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter and Bonners Ferry beat Kellogg 48-39 to earn a ticket to the state tournament.

"We just had to do what we had to do — get every rebound and make our free throws," Rice said. "We're starting to come together and I thought we really played together well tonight."

Kellogg (12-10) used an 8-0 run to tie the game with 1:34 left in the third quarter. But Bonners Ferry (11-11), which scored the last four points of the third period, took a 35-26 lead on a Rice three-point play, to cap a 9-0 run with 6:46 left in the game.

The Wildcats cut it to 39-36 and later made it 40-36 with 1:10 remaining. They had possession with a chance to make it a one-point game, but Rice stepped into the passing lane for the steal, dishing off to Brian Cossairt, who was later named the Intermountain League player of the year.

Kellogg fouled Cossairt and the Bonners Ferry senior made 1 of 2 free throws to make it a five-point lead. Kellogg's Seth Patton made it 41-39 on a three-point play with 42.5 seconds showing. But that was as close as the Wildcats could get.

Bonners Ferry qualified for the 3A State Tournament in Meridian March 3-5. Kellogg will play Priest River at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Timberlake High School for the second berth.

Kellogg 7 9 10 13 — 39

Bonners Ferry 13 7 10 18 — 48

KELLOGG — Patton 14, Landrum 2, Priest 6, Powers 4, Lloyd 6, Conboy 4, Big Spring 1, Lund 2.

BONNERS FERRY — Cox 5, Behrens 8, Simpson 6, Cossiart 8, Guthrie 2, Rice 19, Ronniger 0.

PRIEST RIVER 56

TIMBERLAKE 45

COEUR d'ALENE — Stevie Walkup scored 16 of his game-high 18 points in the second half and Joey Stark scored nine first-quarter points en route to 12 to lead Priest River past Timberlake.

The Spartans erased a 22-21 halftime deficit with an 11-2 run and pretty much stayed out of reach with a big fourth-quarter performance by Walkup. The 5-foot-10 senior scored nine points in the final eight minutes, including two from 3-point range.

"We talked about coming out and playing the second half with more energy. That's the way I'd like to do it again on Saturday, just come out and get after it," Priest River coach Bill Ryan said. "We've had a pretty good balanced scoring all year, so tonight didn't really surprise me."

Priest River will play Kellogg-Bonners Ferry for second place at 1 p.m. Saturday at Timberlake High School in Spirit Lake.

Timberlake senior Eric Lambert scored seven of his team-high 11 in the first half. Ren Jones had 10 points and sophomore Cody Jones, of five junior varsity players who were moved up for the tournament, finished with nine points.

Randy Cork had 12 points and Jeremy Patterson led the Spartans with eight rebounds, six on the defensive glass.

Timberlake 8 14 6 17 — 45

Priest River 16 5 17 18 — 56

TIMBERLAKE — Lambert 11 C. Jones 9, Rodriguez 2, Douglas 3, Clark 4, R. Jones 10, Thompson 6, Gonzales 0, Cook 0, Powers 0, Denton 0, Banks 0.

PRIEST RIVER — Walkup 18, Stark 12, Flaherty 7, Gregory 7, Cork 12, Patterson 0, Willig 0, Lehman 0.

All-Intermountain

League Team

Player of the Year: Bryan Cossairt, Bonners Ferry.

All-IML — Joey Stark, Jake Flaherty, Jeremy Patterson, Priest River; Cameron Michael, Ryne Eberlin, St. Maries; Matt Douglas, Timberlake; Jacob Conboy, Seth Patton, Kellogg; Matt Simpson, Matt Rice, Bonners Ferry.