Jacks rebound; claim third place trophy

I happened with regular frequency during the early years of the Lumberjacks’ streak of state tournament appearances.

And while it has occurred less in recent years, last Friday’s semifinal meeting with top-ranked Melba started much like the 2016 and 2017 games St. Maries played in, ones they lost by large margins.

After going ahead 4-0, St. Maries did not score while Melba put 28 points on the board to put its opponent in a 4-28 hole in the first half.

“We’ve been in some tough semifinal games where you ended up facing the number one team,” Coach Bryan Chase said. “This one, at first, felt like ‘here we go again.’ We were not looking good.”

But that is not where St. Maries’ game finished.

Slowly, the Lumberjacks fought back to the point of cutting the lead to 13 by halftime. At the end of the third quarter it was a one-point game.

“Before we even went into that game we really tried to breathe some life into the kids, and explain to them that yeah, these guys are good, but they’re beatable. Even after the first quarter, the kids were still talking, still pumped up and wanting to get after them. So we started doing some different things, started full-court pressing, and slowly but surely before you know it we’re back in the game.”

Melba answered with a 7-0 run late in the fourth quarter, and despite getting three of those points back, St. Maries fell short 58-62.

The loss pitted the Lumberjacks against league-rival Kellogg in the third-place game. The Wildcats lost their semifinal game to second-ranked Bear Lake 48-53. The Bears went on to upset Melba and win the 2A state title the following day.

The fourth meeting between the two teams, St. Maries won, ending the season series with Kellogg at 3-1.

“Even after losing the night before, the kids were in a good place mentally,” Coach Chase said. “It’s hard to be too upset after how hard they fought the night before, they were proud of the way they punched back after getting so far behind.”

Greyson Sands scored 17 points and pulled down seven rebounds to go with five assists in the 57-46 win.

Greyson scored 60 points in three tournament games, his highest total coming in the quarterfinals against Ririe. He led the team with 22 points and four steals as it defeated the Bulldogs 44-41.

“He turned it up a notch down there,” Coach Chase said. “I thought he was more aggressive offensively, more assertive in getting to the basket. And his defensive effort, diving on the floor, getting in passing lanes, it was contagious. I thought Trace (Wicks) and Jared (Badgett) did a great job defending as well. They were each tasked with other teams’ best players pretty much the whole tournament, and they just did an outstanding job. Most those guys they guarded were averaging close to 20 points per game, and against us it was more like 10 points. And our bigs, Tristun (Hill), Tyler (Renner) and Wyatt (Holmes) were really good for us all tournament as well. Blocking guys out, getting in lanes, they did a lot of good things.”

St. Maries’ third-place finish is its fifth consecutive year it has brought home state hardware (2023 – 3rd; 2022 – 2nd; 2021 – 1st; 2020 – 3rd; 2019 – 2nd).

The Lumberjacks close their season with a 19-6 record.

St. Maries 57, Kellogg 46

(State 2A Third-place game)

SM 14 18 7 18 57

KEL 9 10 13 14 46

Sands – 17 pts., 7 reb., 5 as.; Holder – 13 pts.; Hill – 8 pts.; Badgett – 6 pts.; Wicks – 5 pts.; Renner – 4 pts.; Holmes – 3 pts.; Swallows – 1 pt.

St. Maries 58, Melba 62

(State 2A Semifinal)

SM 4 19 20 15 58

MELBA 18 18 8 18 62

Sands – 21 pts.; Hill – 14 pts.; Wicks – 9 pts.; Holder – 8 pts.; Holmes – 4 pts.; Renner – 2 pts.

St. Maries 44, Ririe 41

(State 2A Quarterfinal)

SM 6 9 10 19 44

RIRIE 4 13 8 16 41

Sands – 22 pts., 4 st.; Hill – 8 pts.; Holder – 7 pts.; Holmes – 3 pts.; Renner – 2 pts.; Wicks – 2 pts.