Lady Spartans drop fourth straight Friday

PRIEST RIVER — The Priest River girls basketball team was scheduled to play three games this past week after the holiday break. Unfortunately, the weather had different plans.

The Spartans home game against St. Maries on Tuesday night was postponed and no makeup date has been announced.

Priest River was able to play its first two games this past week and most recently battled Newport on Friday night.

The home game against the Grizzlies will go down as a loss in the record book but the improvement the Spartans showed had head coach Gary Stewart looking forward to what they can do down the stretch.

“The most physical we’ve been all season,” Stewart said. “We hustled after loose balls, got on the floor and banged with Newport all night.”

Priest River was able to keep it close early on thanks to senior Maddy Rusho who knocked down two 3-pointers in the second quarter. The Spartans trailed 26-20 at the half.

Unfortunately, Priest River was unable to keep up with the Grizzlies offensively and had a couple players foul out in the fourth quarter en route to a 52-37 loss.

Newport completed a season sweep of the Spartans after defeating them 50-30 on Dec. 13.

Senior Karah Fink led the team with 16 points while Rusho added 12.

Priest River’s first game back from the Christmas break last Wednesday didn’t go as well as they had hoped. The Spartans suffered a 57-20 loss in their league opener at Kellogg.

The problem for Priest River in that contest was Kellogg’s Hailey Cheney. The 6-foot sophomore forward scored 32 points and the Spartans had no answer.

“We have no one that can match up with her size, athletic ability and skill around the basket,” Stewart said.

Fink scored 11 points in the game while junior Hannah Palfrey added 5.

Priest River will look to end its losing streak when they head to North Idaho Christian 6:30 p.m. tonight.