Pressure fuels Viking rally
<p>Coeur d'Alene High's Kendalyn Brainard, right, fights for the ball with Jacqueline Luna-Castro from Boise on Thursday night at the Idaho Center in Nampa.</p>
<p>Coeur d'Alene High's Kyeli Parker, left, sprints past Aleah Lowber from Boise during the first half of the Vikings' state 5A basketball tournament opener at the Idaho Center in Nampa.</p>
NAMPA - Coeur d'Alene High sophomore Kendalyn Brainard has been waiting a long time for a night like Thursday.
Brainard, who missed most of the regular season after tearing her ACL in July, made the most of her eighth start of the season as the Coeur d'Alene Vikings rallied from a 12-point halftime deficit and held Boise to 11 second-half points to defeat the Braves 65-52 in the first round of the state 5A girls basketball tournament at the Idaho Center.
Brainard scored nine of her 16 points in the second half as the Vikings went to the "13" press, a 1-3-1 look that the Braves, who lost to the Vikings in the first round last year too, could not counter.
"Their guards couldn't handle it," Brainard said of the defensive switch. "It was amazing it worked that well."
"We couldn't get things going in the first half tonight," Coeur d'Alene coach Dale Poffenroth said. "We got down 12 points and I told our kids if we continued to play like that, Boise would be running away with the game."
Coeur d'Alene (19-5), the three-time defending champion, advances to play Highland (23-1) of Pocatello, which defeated Mountain View of Meridian 40-27, in the semifinals tonight at 7 PST. Cd'A beat Highland 48-39 in the semis last year.
"Those Gonzalez twins have gotten bigger and better since the last time we played them," Poffenroth said of Highland. "It's going to be just as tough as this game tonight."
Coeur d’Alene also used the press to rally past Federal Way (Wash.) 70-69 to capture the Holiday Inn Express Invitational at North Idaho College on Dec. 29.
“We knew if we could run it well against Federal Way, we could do it against anyone,” Poffenroth said. “The kids had confidence in it and it gave some kids a chance to make some plays for us.”
Boise raced out to a 41-29 halftime lead as senior post Jacqueline Luna-Castro scored 18 of her 22 points in the opening half. Luna-Castro eventually fouled out with three minutes remaining in the game.
“The pace of the game changed in the second half,” Boise coach Kim Brydges said. “We started getting into foul trouble and it began to hurt us. Coeur d’Alene started to hit some shots and we made some bad decisions.”
Coeur d’Alene had four players in double figures, with Carli Rosenthal also scoring 16, Kyeli Parker 15 and Caelyn Orlandi 14.
Parker’s 3-pointer with 5:32 remaining tied the game at 52 before the Vikings closed the game on a 13-0 run.
“We knew we could do it,” Parker said of the team’s second-half rally. “Once we were able to get over the top, we could keep going. Our defense has been our savior this year and Boise didn’t adjust to our press in the second half.”
Rosenthal added nine rebounds for the Vikings.
Boise 17 24 7 4 — 52
Coeur d’Alene 14 15 18 18 — 65
BOISE — Butler 0, Skaggs 11, Haroian 5, Lowber 9, Dacic 3, Luna-Castro 22, Roser 2. Totals 13-39 22-25 52.
COEUR d’ALENE — Baughman 2, Sumner 0, Chalich 0, Orlandi 14, C. Williams 0, K. Parker 15, Legel 2, Petit 0, Rosenthal 16, S. Parker 0, Brainard 16, S. Williams 0. Totals 23-51 18-28 65.