‘We just said this is our year’: Bear Lake knocks off unbeaten Sugar-Salem to claim second title in three years

NAMPA – As good as Bear Lake has been, and the Bears have been very good, winning a state title and playing in their third consecutive championship game on Saturday, coach Ken Wells knew his team had to be near perfect to beat Sugar-Salem in the 4A championship game.

Hit some big shots?

Sure.

Play well inside?

Of course.

Play the kind of defense that can slow down a high-scoring Digger offense?

Yep.

Seems like quite a task, but the Bears checked off every box, and then some, on the way to a 65-57 win over top-seeded Sugar-Salem, snapping the Diggers’ win streak at 51 games dating back to last year.

One of those wins was in last year’s state title game when Sugar-Salem beat the Bears 47-41.

“We believed we could do something special,” Wells said after the postgame celebration.

It didn’t look that way at first, as the Diggers jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead, with four different players scoring, forcing a timeout by Bear Lake with 5:23 in the first quarter.

Wells joked he couldn’t repeat what he was thinking at that point, but whatever was said to the team seemed to work.

Bear Lake bounced back as Abby Humpherys knocked down a couple of 3-pointers to cut the lead to 14-10.

Kortlyn Skinner nailed a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 14-13 and the Bears eventually took a 15-14 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Bear Lake (23-4) didn’t slow down, scoring 27 points in the second quarter and shooting 64% in the half on the way to a 42-28 lead. The Bears hit 8 of 13 3-pointers and Sugar-Salem couldn’t keep up.

Sugar-Salem entered the game giving up fewer than 37 points per game. The only 4A team better was Bear Lake at 33 points.

“We had to play good defense,” said the Bears’ Halle Wells, who finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocks.

Wells was instrumental in the paint, while Humpherys was deadly from the perimeter, hitting 4 of 5 3-pointers and finishing with 16 points, 14 coming in the first half as Bear Lake started to pull away.

The Bears put up 366 3-pointers during the season, but connected on just 28% of their long-range shots.

Ken Wells noted that the team was just 6 for 64 on 3-pointers in recent games.

That poor shooting trend changed on Saturday as Bear Lake hit 9 of 17 3-point shots, most seemingly coming when it looked like the Diggers would make a move to cut into the lead.

“I knew we had to break out,” Ken Wells said.

Sugar-Salem did make a dent in the score in the fourth, closing within 64-57 with 1:30 left, but the Diggers would get no closer.

“After last year, we just said this is our year,” Humpherys said.

Sugar-Salem coach Crystal Dayley credit her players for the 51-game win steak and making it back to another state championship game.

She also noted Bear Lake’s offensive surge was hard to counter.

“They started super hot from the 3-point line and it felt like every shot they put up went in,” Dayley said. “We couldn’t hit and they could. We tried to shut down their inside game because that’s where they’ve been hurting everyone … Sometimes you have to have a lot of luck in your favor to win a state championship and I thought everything went their way tonight.”

Andee Petterson led Sugar-Salem with 20 points and Brinley Bradshaw added 12 points and a team-high six rebounds.