Watson leads Vikings in opener
<p>Coeur d'Alene High's Travis Tackett elevates toward the rim after beating the Central Valley High defense down court for the pass during the second half of the Viking's 54-48 win over the Bears.</p>
<p>Coeur d'Alene High's Ty Higbie goes head-to-head with Anthony Brommer from Central Valley High during the first half.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Senior Deon Watson hit a 3-pointer with 45 seconds remaining to break a 45-all tie and give the Coeur d'Alene Vikings the lead for good in a 54-48 season-opening win over the Central Valley Bears on Thursday night at Elmer Jordan Court.
Watson scored 14 of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter.
"Central Valley is a very physical team," Coeur d'Alene assistant coach Bill Hughes said. "This was a very good game for us. Deon hit a huge 3 and we were able to hit some key free throws down the stretch to get the win."
Ty Higbie scored 13 points and Gage Neirinckx had seven points for Coeur d’Alene, which travels to University on Dec. 10.
“Gage is new here and between him, Ty and Deon, we’re going to depend on them a lot this year,” Hughes said.
Coeur d’Alene also played without starting senior post Chad Chalich, who is recovering from a broken foot suffered during football season.
Gaven Deyarmin scored 10 points for Central Valley.
Central Valley 9 17 8 14 — 48
Coeur d’Alene 9 15 9 21 — 54
CENTRAL VALLEY — Wiecking 4, Chamberlain 3, Rehkow 5, Terrell 5, Dach 3, Sawyer 6, Byus 0, Nimiri 8, Brommer 4, Demaryin 10.
COEUR d’ALENE — Tackett 3, Neirinckx 7, Daniels 4, Carpenter 1, Loy 5, Moore 0, Higbie 13, Watson 21.
St. Maries 71
Orofino 20
ST. MARIES — Warren Joiner had 19 points and six rebounds and the Lumberjacks shot 33 of 55 from the field in a season-opening nonleague win over the Maniacs.
“We were pretty balanced tonight,” St. Maries coach Craig Wicks said. “Orofino is a young team and we came out playing some good pressure defense and got some easy baskets. Our defense really set the tempo for the game.”
Austin Linnemeyer had seven assists and six rebounds for St. Maries, which travels to the Coeur d’Alene junior varsity on Tuesday.
Orofino 3 7 3 7 — 20
St. Maries 19 21 23 8 — 71
OROFINO — Pippenger 4, Turner 0, Schleper 5, Lee 5, Brink 0, Judd 4, Goodrich 0, Kuykendall 2.
ST. MARIES — Joiner 19, Stapleton 10, Schetzle 9, Kennelly 8, Rhyle 8, Aguirre 0, Linnemeyer 4, Cordell 11, McMaster 2.