Coombs court dominance, Jackman’s clutch shooting leads Snake River past Sugar-Salem

BLACKFOOT — Behind a stellar all-around effort from do-everything senior Marcus Coombs, the Snake River Panthers controlled the first half of their rematch with Sugar-Salem, at Snake River High School Friday night.

The Diggers, though, battled back in the third quarter to take a five-point lead into the fourth. But on a night when he struggled to make a shot early, senior guard Dawson Jackman made the plays, and buckets, when his team needed them, securing a 58-55 victory for Snake River.

Head coach Robert Coombs, who has been at the head of the Panther basketball program for more than a quarter-century, knows a thing or two about winning — and winning in the postseason. He said after the game that these are the types of battles that will help his team be prepared for playoff basketball.

“That’s the kind of games we need to play, to get us ready for district and state — it’s going to be a fight, just like that, because there are some good teams in 4A this year,” Robert said.

After heading into halftime with a 28-24 advantage, Snake River (14-1, 0-0) found containing the Digger one-two punch of Ace Clark and Frank Fillmore difficult, and the energetic visitors stole the momentum to grab their biggest lead of the night (five) late in the third.

The Panthers started chipping away quickly in the fourth though, with sophomore Brock Mortimer hitting a 3-pointer to open the fourth-quarter scoring. The triple set off an onslaught, as Clark followed with his own triple for Sugar-Salem (11-4, 0-0)

Sugar-Salem’s Ace Clark (1) fires a 3 in the third quarter as Snake River’s Marcus Cooombs (23) challenges. | Kalama Hines, EastIdahoNews.com

Down five and in the throes of an off-shooting night, Snake River’s pesky point guard, Jackman, took matters into his own hands, hitting three-straight triples, giving his team a four-point lead.

“He is a competitor,” Robert said of Jackman. “Just because he misses one or two shots, he ain’t going to backdown — he doesn’t know what ‘backdown’ means.”

The Diggers refused to go away though, trimming the deficit to one, 56-55, with under a minute to play.

Wrapped around a series of timeouts from both teams, Sugar-Salem perfectly defended the Snake River inbound play, denying the inbounding pass to Coombs or Jackman. Instead, they forced the sophomore Mortimer to get the ball, sending him to the free throw line with 17.8 seconds on the clock and all the pressure of the night on his shoulders.

But Mortimer stood tall at the line, draining both shots — with a Sugar-Salem timeout giving him some time to think between the first and second.

Robert said he was very impressed with the poise of the youngster.

“Everybody contributed, did their job,” the coach said. “That’s what we need.”

Marcus finished the game with 21 points, seven rebounds, one block and one steal. Jackman added 17 points, three rebounds and three steals.

Clark led all Diggers scorers with 14 points, to go with six rebounds. Fillmore added 11 points, four rebounds, three blocks and a steal.

Sugar-Salem’s Frank Fillmore (12) blocks the shot attempt of Snake River’s Bryden Mortensen (2) during the second quarter of Snake River’s victory. | Kalama Hines, EastIdahoNews.com

Following the big win, his team’s second over fellow 4A state championship hopeful Sugar-Salem in 10 days, Robert said the win is made all the more impressive given how “solid” a team the Diggers have. But this win, he said, gives his Panthers a sweep of Districts 4 and 6 4A opponents, with conference play approaching.

“Our goal right now is to win these conference games, because whoever wins the regular season conference gets to host district — we’d sure like to have districts come through here,” the coach said.

That task, he added, is easier said than done, given the recent success of American Falls and Marsh Valley. But, Robert continued, Snake River looks to the return of 6-foot-9 forward Bridjer Howard, who is recovering from an illness and has been limited in the past two games.

“If we can add him into the mix, with what’s going on, we’ll feel pretty good,” Robert said of Howard’s potential return.

Howard and his teammates will get nearly a full week of rest before Snake River gets its conference schedule started with a trip to Bear Lake, Thursday.

Sugar-Salem is back in action Saturday, at Ririe.