Spartans bounce back, down Jaguars in consolation game

PRIEST RIVER — Priest River girls basketball was determined to avoid going winless in its own holiday tournament and that drive powered the team to a 45-33 victory over Genesis Prep in a Spartan Christmas Tournament consolation game Saturday at PRLHS.

After suffering a tough 30-26 loss to Clark Fork to open the tourney Friday, head coach Gary Stewart said it was nice to see his team respond.

"We started great and jumped on them pretty fast," he said.

The Spartans built a 15-4 advantage after one quarter of play, but the Jaguars clawed their way back and only trailed 30-29 entering the fourth quarter.

The game was tied multiple times in the fourth quarter, Stewart said, but Priest River outscored Genesis Prep 15-4 to seal the victory.

At times, Stewart said the Spartans struggled slowing down the Jaguars' Belle Deboer, who finished with 17 points.

"She's a good player ... and I had to switch to a diamond-and-one in the second half because we just couldn't contain her playing regular man defense," he said.

In the second half, Stewart tasked freshman Desarai Humphrey with slowing Deboer down — and she did.

"She held [Deboer] scoreless in the fourth quarter, which was huge," he said.

Sophomore Samantha Pound had quite the night, grabbing 17 points and seven rebounds.

"It's probably her best overall game in maybe two years," Stewart said. "I had [Humphrey] play point guard tonight a little bit and that kind of opened up Sam so she could get more into her game."

Junior Lilly Freitas scored 12 points and sophomore Allyson Barton tallied 8 points, 11 rebounds and five steals.

In Friday's loss to Clark Fork, Pound scored a team-high 10 points. Lizzie McCracken and Barton each tallied 5.

Priest River beat the Lady Cats 27-19 in Clark Fork on Dec. 1. Stewart said he was planning to install some new wrinkles for the rematch with Clark Fork, but Thursday's practice was canceled due to snow. He said that really threw off the team, along with the Lady Cats deciding to play man defense.

"That kind of caught us off guard," he said.

Priest River (3-5) has one more game before they head into the Christmas break. The Spartans open Intermountain League play 7 p.m. Tuesday at Bonners Ferry.

Genesis Prep 4 12 13 4 — 33

Priest River 15 9 6 15 — 45

GENESIS PREP — Martin 4, Covey 0, Martin 0, Deboer 17, Yount 0, Nichols 0, Anderson 6, Lawler 4, Wilson 2.

PRIEST RIVER — Burgess-Duquette 0, Pound 19, Freitas 12, Thompson 2, Humphrey 1, McCracken 0, Kingery 3, Barton 8, Rhine 0.

Clark Fork 9 3 9 9 — 30

Priest River 3 8 6 9 — 26

CLARK FORK — Matteson 0, Valliere 1, Shelton 6, Reuter 14, Yancey 0, Thompson 9, Mace 0, Herrick 0.

PRIEST RIVER — Burgess-Duquette 0, Pound 10, Freitas 2, Thompson 0, Humphrey 0, McCracken 5, Kingery 3, Davis 0, Barton 5, Rhine 1.