Bulldogs stave off Badgers to complete season sweep

BONNERS FERRY — Sandpoint girls basketball escaped Bonners Ferry with a 47-40 victory Tuesday night.

The Bulldogs came up clutch down the stretch, knocking down 11 of their 14 free-throw attempts.

"We've been struggling at the free-throw line, but tonight that was our saving grace," head coach Will Love said. "The kids did a good job of stepping up and hitting some free throws throughout the game. It was something we obviously needed to focus on, so we've been working on that a lot in practice."

In their first meeting at Les Rogers Court on Nov. 23, the Bulldogs beat the Badgers 50-34.

"Bonners has improved quite a lot since the last time that we played them," Love said. "They are young and you can see them coming along and they are going to be a pretty tough team, so they offered some challenges to us that we had to work hard to contain."

Bonners Ferry trailed 26-15 at the half, but battled back to make things interesting down the stretch.

Daylee Driggs finished with a team-high 14 points. Kelsey Cessna scored 12 points and went 6 of 6 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. Aliya Strock had 6 points, and Anna Reinink and Sofia Platte each added 5.

Asha Abubakari led the Badgers with 15 points.

The Bulldogs (7-6) travel to Timberlake at 7 p.m. Thursday.

"We struggled a bit with our close outs on 3-point shooters," Love said, "so I know with Timberlake coming up that's something that we are really going to have to focus on in practice [Wednesday]."

Sandpoint 14 12 6 15 — 47

Bonners Ferry 9 6 9 16 — 40

SANDPOINT — Cessna 12, Driggs 14, Reinink 5, Tomco 1, Owens 0, Strock 6, Lyons 4, Platte 5.

BONNERS FERRY — Burt 0, Villaluz 2, Pluid 8, Blackmore 4, Abubakari 15, Shottanana-Ponce 0, B. Bayer 8, Sumpter 0, A. Bayer 3.