Sandpoint swept by St. Maries

SANDPOINT — After starting fast, the Sandpoint boys basketball team sputtered in the final three quarters and fell to St. Maries on Tuesday for the second time this season, 50-46.

Senior Kobe Banks tallied 25 points including hitting six 3-pointers. But turnovers, fouls and rebounding killed the Bulldogs all night. Sandpoint had 14 turnovers and were outrebounded 17-11.

Head coach Wade Engelson said his team fouled way too much giving St. Maries the opportunity to convert easy shots from the free throw line.

“Our demise is, when we don’t play well, we get away from the things that we practice,” he said. “Defensively we stopped doing things that we do defensively and then St. Maries put pressure on us and we didn’t respond well to it.”

The Bulldogs were all over the Lumberjacks early jumping out to a 10-0 lead. St. Maries didn’t score a basket until there was 1:13 left in the first quarter and were held to 3 points in the first eight minutes.

The second quarter saw Sandpoint get a taste of their own medicine as the Lumberjacks full court press forced the Bulldogs to commit a handful of turnovers.

St. Maries capitalized going on a 12-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 15-13.

From there the teams went back and forth until the halftime whistle blew and St. Maries took a 23-22 advantage into the locker room.

The break didn’t help the Bulldogs much as Sandpoint continued to struggle offensively and the Lumberjacks took advantage outscoring the Bulldogs 14-8 in the third quarter.

St. Maries continued to assert its will in the fourth quarter building a lead as big as 11 points.

And just when the game looked like it was over, the Bulldogs went on a 6-0 run to pull within 4 points.

Sandpoint’s full court press starting give the Lumberjacks fits down the stretch as the Bulldogs grabbed four steals but it was too little too late.

Freshman Colin Roos added 8 points, three assists and three steals.

“We showed how well we can play but we got to do that for four quarters,” Engelson said.

The Bulldogs (4-4) open league action 7 p.m. Thursday when they head to Moscow.

St. Maries 3 20 14 13 — 50

Sandpoint 13 9 8 16 — 46

ST. MARIES — Sands 3, Ross 6, Becktel 20, Gentry 6, Stancil 6, Peet 0, Elliott 0, Gibson 9, Ledbetter 0.

SANDPOINT — R. Roos 3, Banks 25, Niemela 0, Eldridge 2, VanDenBerg 3, Lee 0, C. Roos 8, Treadaway 0, Lane 3, Casey 2.