Badger boys lose by two, win by two at Freeman

The Bonners Ferry Badger boys started out strong as they faced the Liberty High School squad of Spangle, Wash., Thursday night in the opening round of the Freeman Tournament, but Liberty clawed their way to a two point win to put the Badgers in the loser's bracket.

The next night, the Badgers fought a much closer match against Tonasket, Wash., falling into a deficit early, but coming back to edge the Tigers by two.

The Badgers outscored Liberty 18-9 in the opening quarter of Thursday night's match, but Liberty was able to stay within a single point in second-quarter scoring to go into the locker room behind by ten, 34-24.

Liberty kicked into gear in the third quarter, outscoring the Badgers 22-17 to narrow the Badger lead to 51-46 going into the final quarter. And, they got better in the fourth, outscoring the Badgers 23-16 to close the gap and pull off a 69-67 win.

A.J. Bennett led the Badger scoring effort with 18 points, including a perfect four-of-four from the charity stripe, and Ryan Winebark, who hit seven of eight from the floor, was right behind with 15 points.

Also breaking into double digits for the Badgers was James Krejci, who hit three of five treys to put 11 points on the Badger ledger.

Bonners Ferry 18 16 17 16 — 67

Liberty       9 15 22 23 — 69

BONNERS FERRY — Pluid 2, Bennett 18, Krejci 11, Langford 0, Galloway 3, Winebark 15, Hawks 9, Heigel 0, Newhouse 8.

LIBERTY — Konshuk 10, Salsbury 6, Canning 24, Heiydt 6, Konshuk 0, Willey 3, Weis 20, Anderson 0, Janson 0.

On Friday night, it was Tonasket that jumped to the first-half lead, but by a much narrower margin, putting up one more point in the first quarter, 15-14, and a slim three points in the second to go wrap the half ahead by four, 29-25.

The Badgers came out of the locker room to outscore the Tigers 14-8 pull to a two-point lead.

Both teams put on their best scoring drives of the night in the final quarter, but when the shooting ended, both teams came away with 21 points to leave the Badger edge on the books.

Bennett again led the Badger scoring drive with 19 points, with Winebark scoring 11.

Bonners Ferry 14 11 14 21 — 60

Tonasket 15 14 8 21 — 58

BONNERS FERRY — Pluid 6, Bennett 19, Krejci 2, Langford 2, Galloway 4, Winebark 11, Hawks 9, Heigel 5, Newhouse 2.

TONASKET — Hunlock 6, Osborne 16, Stoddard 2, Clarkson 0, Bebee 0, Wells 12, Moser 22, Leavell 0.