Post Falls, Lake City advance to title game
POST FALLS - The third-seeded Lake City Timberwolves and the top-seeded Post Falls Trojans will meet next week for the 5A Region 1 title and a trip to state after both posted convincing wins Friday night.
Lake City knocked off second-seeded Coeur d'Alene 61-49 while Post Falls whipped fourth-seeded Lewiston 76-50 in the first round of the regional tournament at The Arena.
The Trojans (18-3) and the Wolves (12-9) will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at The Arena for a trip to state March 4-6 at the Idaho Center in Nampa. Coeur d'Alene (14-7) will take on Lewiston (10-10) at home in a loser-out game Tuesday at 7.
The two remaining teams play next Friday at 7 at the higher seed for the region's second berth to state.
Post Falls 76, Lewiston 50: Shawn Reid had just the right move to spark the Trojans to a second-half blowout of the Bengals.
Leading 33-23 at the break, the 6-foot-4 senior tipped the inbounds pass at halfcourt, raced down and slammed home a dunk as the crowd roared.
"That's a great way to start the half," Post Falls coach Mike McLean said.
The Trojans were just getting started.
Marcus Colbert threaded a long pass to Connor Hill for a layup, Reid dropped in a floater, and Malcolm Colbert scored on a drive for a 41-23 lead and the Bengals couldn't climb back.
Reid finished with 21 points, and the Colbert brothers added 15 each. Meantime, a full-court defense continually pressured Lewiston into turnovers that led to easy Trojan baskets.
"I thought we were able to wear them down with our depth tonight," McLean said.
Lewiston was led by the 16 points of their 6-7 senior Justin Podrabsky, and got 14 from junior Matthew Kalbfleisch.
McLean praised the defense of Matt Lickfold, Jeremy Cragin and Jared Kennedy.
"We did a pretty good job on Podrabsky," he said. "He's a beast inside."
Malcolm Colbert, a senior, scored 9 points in the third quarter, highlighted by a steal and a layup, and a 3-pointer at the buzzer. To open the fourth quarter, he flipped a nice pass to brother Marcus for a jumper, and followed that a minute later with another 3-pointer.
"Marcus is truly the heart and soul of this team," McLean said. "He's imposing his will on his teammates to get back to where we want to be."
Marcus, meanwhile, was simply too fast for the Bengals and continually zipped past defenders for layups or dropped the ball off to an open teammate.
"Marcus just does his thing," McLean said. "He's hard to guard off the dribble."
Lewiston 10 13 12 15 - 50
Post Falls 19 14 22 21 - 76
LEWISTON - Imel 7, Waltermire 1, Kalbfleisch 14, Podrabsky 16, Taylor 2, Schrette 2, Fuentes 7, Beck 1, Cuddy 0, Bernatz 0.
Post Falls - Hill 9, Muncey 2, Mal. Colbert 15, Mar. Colbert 15, Reid 21, Mikkelson 2, Lickfold 8, Kennedy 2, Cragin 2, Gonzales 0.
Lake City 61, Coeur d'Alene 49: Clint Hartz celebrated his 17th birthday Friday by coming off the bench to score 13 points while playing strong in the paint to lead Lake City.
The 6-4 junior came up with a steal, a pair of free throws and a baseline jumper as the Timberwolves built a 16-4 lead in the second quarter and never looked back.
"He gave us quality minutes off the bench," Lake City coach Jim Winger said.
Lake City put four players in double figures, led by J.J. Stoddard with 17, Hartz and Jason Wheelock with 13 each and Mark Smyly with 11.
Winger liked the way the Wolves came out fast and established an inside game.
"We were ready to go," he said.
The T-Wolves also connected on 23 of 28 free throws, while the Trojans were 7-16.
"I thought we executed our offense," Winger said. "We ran a lot of our sets at them and we were pretty successful with it."
The Vikings were led by Deon Watson with 20 points, 14 of which came in the fourth quarter as Coeur d'Alene tried to rally.
But they were hurt by a slow start that saw them commit seven first-quarter turnovers and score just 10 points in the first half.
"When we fell behind we kind of got away from our game plan of wanting to get the basketball inside," Viking coach Kent Leiss said. "We started taking quick shots from the outside and dug ourselves a 10-point deficit we were never able to come out of."
Leiss noted his team managed to score only six points with three minutes left in the second quarter.
"That's unacceptable," he said.
Coeur d'Alene pulled within 27-21 on a drive by Jake Matheson with 3:30 left in the third quarter, but 3-pointers by Smyly and Wheelock, a bucket inside by Hartz off a pass from Stoddard, and a Hartz 3-pointer to close the quarter rebuilt the lead to 38-25.
The Vikings would get no closer than 10 the rest of the way.
"We just have to bounce back Tuesday night," Leiss said. "The good news is, we get to play at home."
Coeur d'Alene 4 6 15 24 -49
Lake City 9 11 18 23 - 61
COEUR d'ALENE - Matheson 7, Chalich 4, White 6, Watson 20, Williams 12, Reno 0. Stevens 0.
LAKE CITY - Smith 3, Wheelock 13, Smyly 11, Philp 2, Stoddard 17, Hartz 13, Beusan 2, Jackson 0.
Rosenthal helps Cd'A advance to fifth straight title game