Sugar-Salem rallies past Salmon

The Sugar-Salem Diggers overcame an early 10-point deficit Monday to beat the Salmon Savages 57-49 and stay alive in the 3A District 6 tournament.

Sugar-Salem (20-3) will play Shelley (13-9) in the district championship game at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Skyline High School. Salmon (13-10) saw its season end.

Sugar-Salem forward Jordan Ostermiller said the Diggers weren't ready to let their strong season slip away.

"It's do or die right here," Ostermiller said. "We live to play, we play to live. We knew we were down, and no one wants to end their season early, so we picked it up."

Salmon used a sticky 2-3 defense and a strong post game to dominate the first quarter and jump to a 16-6 lead. Sugar-Salem didn't have an answer for 6-foot-7 Mark Hobbs, who scored Salmon's first six points and blocked three shots in the quarter.

Hobbs finished with a game-high 19 points on 8-for-16 shooting 12 rebounds and six blocks. However, after the first quarter, Sugar-Salem effectively denied him the ball in both man and zone defenses, sometimes by fronting with small, quick forwards.

"We just tried to body them up harder," Ostermiller said "They are a little bigger than us, so we tried to get up on them, especially their right hand."

With the Salmon offense bottled up, Sugar-Salem caught Sugar-Salem rallies past Salmon

fire in the second quarter. The Diggers finished the quarter on a 13-3 run highlighted by a two-hand flush by Ostermiller after a steal and 3-pointer by reserve forward Fletcher Rydalch with five seconds left to give Sugar-Salem its first lead.

Rydalch also hit a 3 as the final buzzer of the third quarter sounded to cap a 7-0 run. He finished with only six points, but Sugar-Salem coach Jay Miller said Rydalch did wonders for the Diggers' momentum.

"Those were very critical," Miller said. "It feeds you for the next three to four minutes when you need it.

Salmon coach Rick Sessions said Sugar-Salem's strength is its depth. Salmon's game plan revolved around stopping guards Brennan Bean and Kevin Walker. Salmon succeeded, holding the duo to nine points. But bench players like forward Cameron Hastings (a team-high 12 points) and forward Caleb Brown (nine points) picked up the slack. Sugar-Salem's bench outscored Salmon 35-7.

"That's a great team," Sessions said. "Cameron Hastings came in and went against Hobbs all night and had some huge buckets. He hadn't scored more than four points against us all season. They were prepared and found the kids to get the job done. They just beat us."