Priest River falls to undefeated Marsh Valley

MIDDLETON — Fatigue looked to play a factor for the Spartans, who went six-for-38 from the field and turned the ball over 24 times on the way to a 54-34 semi-final loss to Marsh Valley at the 3A state girls championships in Middleton.

Priest River (17-6) opened the state tournament with a double overtime win on Thursday night.

“Out of character,” was how Priest River head coach Gary Stewart called his teams’ play. Adding, “We played out of sorts, lost our composure, and didn’t play our brand of basketball.

Liz Halcro led the way with 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Lady Spartans, who face Snake River (15-5) at 9 a.m.  in the third place game. The game will be webcast live on Idahosports.com.

“Snake River had a tougher loss than us tonight,” Stewart said. “Hopefully a double-overtime game affects them and it will come down to the old cliche, ‘who wants it more’.”

Snake River suffered a 48-47 double-overtime loss to Timberlake earlier in the night.

Kami Hansen and Rachel Mark each scored nine points for Marsh Valley (24-0), which takes on Timberlake (15-10) in the championship game.

Priest River  7  8  8  11  —  34

Marsh Valley 13  12  17  12—  54

PRIEST RIVER — Weimer 2, Trost 7, Pavey 6, Endicott 1, Douglas 3, Deal 0, Bradbury 2, Doolittle 0, Halcro 12, Urmann 0, Fink 1.

MARSH VALLEY — Hansen 9, Mark 9, Brown 10, Thompson 3, Marshall 4, Dunn 4, Howell 5, May 0, McNabb 0, Hall 4, Armstrong 0, Viehweg 6, Criddle 0, Williams 0, Lolofie 0.