SportsJanuary 26, 1996

Grangeville has the athletes, Prairie the height. Together, they scare every Central Idaho League coach.

The two high school girls' basketball teams put up some impressive numbers in the opening round of the District II Class A-3 Tournament Thursday night at Lewiston High's Booth Hall.

Grangeville showed its quickness by holding Potlatch to its lowest point total of the year in claiming a 57-18 victory.

Prairie of Cottonwood then took advantage of its size to do an inside number on Timberline of Pierce-Weippe 65-30.

Grangeville's and Prairie's reward is a second-round meeting Saturday as all eight teams are in action,. starting at 1 p.m.

While the games originally have been set two hours apart, tournament director Pat Valliant said the second game in each session will now follow 20 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. The change was made to help cut down time between the two games (there was a 57-minute break between Thursday's two games) and also help people from out of town get home at an earlier time because of poor weather and travel conditions.

The winner of the double-elimination tournament earns a berth to the state tournament, which will be held Feb. 8-10 at Twin Falls High School. The second-place team will play Wallace in a playoff game for state.

Grangeville 57, Potlatch 18

Chelsey Hall has been through this before. Three times.

The 5-foot-8 senior forward is the lone starter left from Grangeville's state championship team of two years ago and is a four-year starter. So playoff time for her becomes money time for the Bulldogs.

Hall tied her season-high with 28 points, hitting 10 of 16 shots from the floor, including 4-of-6 3-pointers.

"She's a tournament player," Grangeville coach Larson Anderson said. "She's tough, aggressive and ready to play. She has a lot of experience and skills."

Along with Hall, Grangeville's full-court press also gave Potlatch fits. The Loggers had 20 first-half turnovers and just eight points and finished the game with more turnovers than points.

"We handled the ball like a seventh-seeded team," Potlatch coach Jeff Martin said. "At halftime I asked them if the bounce pass had been invented but I still didn't see it that much in the third quarter."

Potlatch has had trouble with Grangeville this season, failing to reach 30 points in all three games.

"We knew going in we had to control our turnovers and play good defense," Martin said. "Grangeville is a tough team."

The Bulldogs used a 10-0 run in the first quarter for a 12-2 lead and increased it to 26-8 at halftime. Hall had 15 by halftime and then scored 10 of Grangeville's 13 third quarter points.

"I think it was all right," Hall said, grading Grangeville's performance. "We had to make some adjustments in our press. We are going to have to play really good defense the rest of the way."

"They (the Loggers) handled our press much better than the last time," Anderson said. "They were ready for it and we had to work hard down the floor."

The Bulldogs were forced to play without 5-11 sophomore center Angie Zehner who has pneumonia. Anderson said she may see some playing time Saturday but her status for the game won't be decided until then.

Andrea Agee had 10 points for Grangeville while Lani Pollworth added seven.

"We are a well-rounded team," Anderson said. "I don't want to have one or two big scorers. At the start of the year I told them to all shoot if they are open. We have good athletes on this team."

Potlatch's top scorer was Lacie Martin with eight points, including two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Jenna Rauch, Potlatch's leading scorer at nearly 17 points per game, was held to two free throws.

"Grangeville did a good job of closing her off," Martin said. "She only got 3-4 shots."

The contest lasted only 1 hour and three minutes.

GRANGEVILLE (57)

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Kim Frei 1 3-5 5, Erika Hinds 0 0-0 0, Marietta Walker 0 0-0 0, Lani Pollworth 2 2-2 7, Chelsey Hall 10 4-6 28, Tiffany Wilbanks 0 0-0 0, Dani Kellogg 1 1-2 3, Andrea Agee 3 2-2 10, Stacy Edwards 1 0-0 2, Wendy Frei 0 0-0 0, Tommiann Whiten 0 2-2 2. Totals 18 14-19 57.

POTLATCH (18)

Jeni Britt 1 0-0 2, Megan Comstock 1 0-0 2, Kelsey Beckner 0 0-0 0, Rachelle Emerson 0 0-0 0, Tara Lovell 1 0-2 2, Lacie Martin 3 0-0 8, Heather Baker 1 0-0 2, Jessica Chambers 0 0-0 0, Lani Nicholson 0 0-0 0, Alaina Baker 0 0-0 0, Jenna Rauch 0 2-2 2. Totals 7 2-4 18.

Potlatch 2 6 2 818

Grangeville 12 14 13 1857

Total fouls - Potlatch 16, Grangeville 5. Fouled out - none. Technical fouls - none. Three-point goals - Martin 2, Hall 4, Agee 2, Pollworth.

Prairie 65, Timberline 30

Timberline has no player taller than 5-8. Prairie has five players 5-8 or taller. Not much more of an explanation is needed.

Prairie's five tallest players all scored at least three field goals and combined for 46 points."

"Yeah I was pleased with our inside game,'' Prairie coach Gordon Heath said. "We were pretty jittery at the start, but then we calmed down.''

Timberline led 7-6 at the 2:43 mark of the first quarter but Prairie used runs of 12 and 14 straight points to outscore Timberline 44-9 over the next 16 minutes.

Nearly all of the points came inside as well. Prairie led 36-15 at halftime and only seven points came on outside shots.

"We really didn't plan it (to go inside),'' Heath said. "We do have the big kids and we just recognized that those shots were there.''

Prairie held a 39-20 rebounding edge, including 20 on the offensive end, leading to several second and third opportunities.

"We just didn't block out,'' Timberline coach Jami Jaeger said. "They got second, third and fourth shots. When that started happening, we lost our aggressiveness for the rest of the game.''

Amy Funke, a 5-11 junior, led Prairie with 15 points while five other players were in the 6-9 point range.

"If we have a plus on this team, is that any one of the kids can have an off night and I still feel good about our chances,'' Heath said of Prairie's balanced attack. "We don't have that star' player.''

Kacey Wyatt led Timberline with 11 points.

"Prairie's height intimidated our players a little bit and then we didn't execute our offense,'' Jaeger said. "We can play with teams for a while and then we falls to pieces. It's a mental thing. I told the kids that I know how well they can play and it's sad to see the way they played tonight. I want the girls to come out mad and knock someone off.''

TIMBERLINE (30)

Bonnie Jensen 3 0-0 6, Kristy Rayner 1 0-0 2, Renee Trieb 0 0-0 , Amy Crutcher 0 0-0 0, Meagon Umphenour 3 0-0 6, Kacey Wyatt 4 3-10 11, Mindy Wyatt 1 1-2 3, Serenity Staggs 1 0-0 2, Kylie Hartig 0 0-0 0, Jessica Potratz 0 0-0 0, Billy Artmitager 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 4-12 30.

PRAIRIE (65)

Jennifer Arnzen 0 0-0 0, Erika Forsmann 1 0-0 2, Beth Klapprich 4 0-0 8, Amanda Eckert 4 1-2 9, Tina Wessels 4 0-0 8, Renee Arnzen 0 0-0 0, Amy Funke 6 3-4 15, Audrey Rehder 3 0-1 7, Sarah Remacle 0 0-0 0, Heather Lerandeau 3 0-0 6, Dorothy Jentges 1 0-0 2, Amy Stark 1 2-2 4, Nikkie Clark 2 0-0 4. Totals 29 6-9 65

Timberline 9 6 5 1030

Prairie 14 22 18 1365

Total fouls Timberline 7, Prairie 14. Fouled out None. Technical fouls None. Three-point goals Rehder.

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