Double surprise: Vikings, Lewiston advance to title game

POST FALLS - After a tight 5A Inland Empire League season in which only two games separated first place from last place, being the higher seed meant nothing Friday night in the first round of the 5A Region 1 boys basketball tournament at The Arena.

Third-seeded Coeur d'Alene jumped on top early and led by as many as 20 points in a 66-52 victory over No. 2 Lake City, a team which had beaten the Vikings in both league meetings this year.

Then, No. 4 Lewiston hit 10 3-pointers - all in the first three quarters - and surprised top-seeded, top-ranked and defending state champion Post Falls 72-64.

"The last couple of years, I thought we played very good basketball against almost everybody we've played, except Lake City," Coeur d'Alene coach Kent Leiss said. "We really stressed being focused, ready to go and playing with energy and intensity, and having a great first quarter."

That means Coeur d'Alene (14-7) will play host to Lewiston (12-9) on Tuesday at 7 in the championship game for a berth to state March 3-5 at the Idaho Center in Nampa.

And Post Falls (17-4) and fourth-ranked Lake City (15-6), the region's two representatives to state last year, will meet Tuesday at 7 at Post Falls in a loser-out game.

"I don't think anybody would be completely shocked that the two lower seeds won," Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. "There's no reason to feel sorry for ourselves now; we put ourselves in this position. If you don't bring it in this league, you don't win. You saw what happens."

Coeur d'Alene 66, Lake City 52: This game looked nothing like either of the two league meetings, won by Lake City by a combined nine points.

After struggling with its shooting against the Timberwolves in league play, Coeur d'Alene hit three 3-point baskets in the first three minutes Friday night, bolted out to a 16-3 lead after one quarter, and hit 6 of 10 3 pointers in the first half for a 24-11 lead.

"We've been working a lot on our shooting the last week, and it paid off," said Coeur d'Alene senior guard Andrew Baracco, who hit 3 of 4 3s in the first half and finished with 13 points. "Once you see the first few go in, you just know that you're going to start knocking shots down."

Coeur d'Alene opened up a 35-15 lead midway through the third quarter. Lake City pulled within six points twice in the fourth quarter.

With the lead, the Vikings were able to pull the T-Wolves out of their sagging man-to-man defense, which opened up room to drive to the basket. Coeur d'Alene finished 20 for 44 from the field.

Coeur d'Alene hit 7 of 14 3s for the game, and made 19 of 22 free throws, including 12 of 14 in the fourth quarter to keep Lake City at bay.

Jake Matheson led Coeur d'Alene with 18 points, and Chad Chalich added 13 points and 10 rebounds.

"We shot the basketball well early and got the lead, and played great defense on (Mark) Smyly and (Chris) Wheelock early," Leiss said. "We've worked a lot on our shooting in the last week, and I think that paid off."

Smyly led Lake City with 15 points. The T-Wolves shot 18 of 48 from the field (including 7 of 21 from 3-point range), and 9 of 20 from the line. Lake City lost starting post Brady Smith to an ankle injury late in the first half.

"I didn't anticipate us to start that way," said Lake City coach Jim Winger, who has seven seniors on the roster, including all five starters. "We were very uptight, very nervous and dug ourselves a huge hole. Coeur d'Alene was ready to go early, and made some shots. I'm really taken back how we came out, how tentative we were. We were very uptight."

Coeur d'Alene 16 8 18 24 - 66

Lake City 3 8 21 20 - 52

COEUR d'ALENE - Tackett 0, Matheson 18, Chalich 13, Loy 8, Higbie 5, Baracco 13, Watson 9.

LAKE CITY - Bevacqua 2, Smith 0, A. Mitchell 3, Wheelock 11, Carlson 12, Turner 1, Hartz 6, Smyly 15, K. Mitchell 0, Guice 2.

Lewiston 72, Post Falls 64: Lewiston went 0-3 on the road in league play, including a 21-point loss at Post Falls just 10 days earlier.

But on Friday, hit 4 of 8 3-pointers in the first quarter, 6 of 13 in building a 35-26 halftime lead, and 10 of 18 3s through three quarters.

Lewiston hit its ninth and 10th 3 in the last 10 seconds of the third quarter, capped by a 70-foot heave by Jay Thomason at the buzzer which hiked the Bengals' lead to 53-38.

So what got into Lewiston?

"Let me know, and we'll bottle it; we'll sell it," second-year Bengal coach Corey Williams said. "I just think the kids kept their poise; they were confident coming in. They handled things well. They'd make a run, we'd answer. When we put things together, we're tough. I was very proud of our leadership tonight."

Matt Kalbfleisch scored a game-high 25 points for Lewiston. Ridge Fuentes made 3 of 6 3-pointers in the first half and finished with five 3s and 17 points. Thomason added 14 points.

Connor Hill scored 14 of his 21 points in the second half for Post Falls, and Marcus Colbert scored 16 of his 20 after intermission.

The Trojans didn’t hit a 3 until 5 minutes left in the game, and trailed by as many as 16 points in the fourth quarter before making the score closer at the end.

“My fear coming into the game was, in the three games that we had lost, we had given up 20-plus points in the first quarter,” McLean said. “At the end of the first quarter we had given up 20 points, so that’s that issue we’ve had. It’s completely unacceptable for us to score 64 points and lose. If you score 64 points, you should be able to win. It just comes down to, we don’t guard anybody.”

Lewiston 20 15 18 19 — 72

Post Falls 18 8 12 26 — 64

LEWISTON — Fuentes 17, Imel 7, Hansen 0, Kalbfleisch 25, Thomason 14, Mai 1, Heitzman 7, Beck 1.

POST FALLS — English 1, Gonzales 1, Hill 21, Anderson 0, Valente 0, Thoreson 6, Colbert 20, Hillman 8, Lickfold 7.