Cold start costs Priest River in first round defeat to Vandals

NAMPA — Priest River's hopes of bringing home a state title were put to bed on Thursday night at Columbia High.

The Spartans (14-9) fell to McCall-Donnelly 59-42 in the first round of the 3A state tournament. With the loss, Priest River moves to the consolation bracket and will face Fruitland (16-7) at 1 p.m. PST Friday.

A cold first half kept Priest River at a distance for most of the game and they could never recover.

The McCall-Donnelly defense held opponents to 38.9 points per game in the regular season and head coach Kevin Wylie said he knew their physicality on that end of the court would be a factor.

"They are a very, very good defensive team," he said. "They forced us to get out of what we are usually able to run, and they were able to disrupt all of our offensive sets and cause us to scramble and not get very good looks at the beginning."

The Vandals (10-2) jumped out to an early 9-2 lead over the Spartans, but Priest River cut the deficit to two with 2:14 left in the first quarter. Then McCall-Donnelly went on a 16-6 run that lasted most of the second quarter. This allowed them to carry a 29-16 lead into halftime.

The Vandals hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the first and second quarters.

"Those were kind of big because really mentally they kind of hurt you," he said.

McCall-Donnelly outrebounded Priest River 24-15 in the first half and had nine second-chance points.

"It definitely hurt us in the first half," Wylie said about rebounding.

The Vandals built a lead as large as 18 points in the third quarter and took a 44-27 advantage into the final frame.

The Spartans cut McCall Donnelly's lead to just 11 points with 3:56 left in the game on a basket by junior Blake Barrett, but they were unable to get any closer as the Vandals shut the door on a potential comeback.

Wylie said once his team got over their nerves in the second quarter, they were able to break down the Vandal defense and cut into the deficit.

"This team never quits fighting," he said. "They are a group that will never stop playing hard. That's something that we've been very pleased with this group ... so we knew we could make a run, we knew the game wasn't over."

Trentyn Kreager led the team with 14 points and five rebounds. Jordan Nortz tallied eight points, four rebounds and two steals, Barrett finished with six points and four rebounds and Teigan Marinello added five points.

Barrett dislocated his shoulder in the fourth quarter and his status for Friday's game against Fruitland is up in the air.

DJ Green finished with 20 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals for McCall-Donnelly, Tate Ova scored 15 and Ethan Tinney grabbed 12 points and eight rebounds. Isaac Speirs had 11 rebounds.

McCall-Donnelly hit seven 3-pointers to stretch out Priest River's zone defense.

"Because their guards like to penetrate the key, we overplayed the interior," Wylie said, "and gave up some exterior shots. We didn't really anticipate them shooting that well."

McCall-Donnelly 12 17 15 15 — 59

Priest River 7 9 11 15 — 42

MCCALL-DONNELLY — A. Johnson 15, C. Johnson 6, Speirs 4, Wallace 0, Ova 2, Green 20, Tinney 12, Stokes 0.

PRIEST RIVER — Mathews 4, Butler 2, J. Nortz 8, Kreager 14, Marinello 5, Barrett 6, D. Nortz 0, Thompson 0, Yount 3.