Badgers’ Win Sweet As Sugar A-2
The Bonners Ferry High School girls basketball team is Nearing the State A-2 championship it desires.
Riding the multi-talented Jana Nearing, the Badgers moved into the state final with an exhilerating 59-54 victory over the Sugar-Salem Diggers in semifinal action Friday at the Meridian High School gym.
Bonners Ferry (18-7 overall) will meet the Shelley Russets (22-0) in the title match this afternoon at 4:50 PST. The game will be at Albertson College in Caldwell.
Shelley advanced with a come-from-behind, 59-50 win over Preston. Preston (21-3) will take on Sugar-Salem (17-7) in the third-place game.
In loser-out games earlier Friday, Moscow eliminated Bishop Kelly 69-56 while Kuna beat Jerome 52-46.
Three-time champion Moscow (16-8) plays Kuna (18-6) in the consolation game.
Bonners Ferry 59, Sugar-Salem 54: The way Diggers coach Lynn Romrell saw it, the game boiled down to a one-on-one match between all-state players: Nearing and his standout Cady Williams.
Nearing was clearly the better player Friday. The 5-foot-9 post-wing scored a game-high 29 points and had 12 rebounds. Williams, who fouled out with just less than 4 minutes left, had 11 points and 10 rebounds.
“We tried fronting her, we tried backsiding her, everything; it just seemed everything she threw up went in,” Romrell said.
Nearing said she was nervous before the game. She isn’t concerned about facing undefeated Shelley. “We’re going to win,” she said. “We can win, I should say.”
“The kid is all-world,” Badgers coach Jim Nash said.
After Bonners Ferry jumped to a 23-14 lead early in the second quarter, the Diggers rallied to make the contest tightly fought to the finish.
Nearing scored 18 points in the first half, 11 in the first quarter. But the Badgers’ nearly lost all of a five-point lead in the waning moments of the second quarter.
A 3-pointer by Tasha Barrus pulled the Diggers within 30-28. Then Mandy Mortenson stole the ball and drove for what could have been a tying basket. But her layup try bounded hard off the glass as the horn sounded.
The Badgers built the cushion to five again in the third quarter and maintained it until late in the fourth. The Badgers fouled Kristy Hymas with 21 seconds left, and she made 1 of 2 free throws to cut the lead to 57-54.
Moscow 69, Bishop Kelly 56 (OT) Junior Angie Sorbel scored 22 points and Moscow outscored Bishop Kelly 21-8 in overtime for a consolation semifinal victory.
Kuna 52, Jerome 46 Sophomore guard Nicole Kloepfer’s 16 points led three Kavemen in double figures as Kuna dropped Jerome in consolation play at Centennial High School.