New identity for Trojans
<p>Post Falls High's Marcus Colbert elevates toward the basket while splitting between two Lake City defenders during the second half of the Trojan's 75-61 win Friday.</p>
<p>Lake City High's Chris Wheelock leaps forward under the arm of Michael Hillman from Post Falls during the first half.</p>
POST FALLS - To get to where they were last season, the defending state 5A champion Post Falls Trojans knew they'd have to have some of their new faces step up to build their identity this season.
On Tuesday night, it was junior Michael Hillman as he made six 3-pointers on his way to a career-high 19 points as the top-ranked Trojans defeated the Lake City Timberwolves 75-61 in an 5A IEL boys basketball matchup at the Arena.
"In the context of our offense, I just was able to work my way open," Hillman said. "We're starting to get better each game."
"I told our kids after the game that everyone was talking us up and a lot of it was because of what we did last year," Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. "We've got a lot of new kids this year and we've probably got the most new players in the league. But those kids earned it tonight and after this game, we've got a new identity. I was very happy with how we responded after the game on Saturday at Lewiston."
Lake City (11-2, 1-1 5A IEL) jumped out to an early lead as senior Mark Smyly scored eight of his game-high 27 points in the first quarter. Smyly finished the first half with 18 points as the Timberwolves took a 40-38 lead at halftime.
"Mark's a splendid athlete," Lake City coach Jim Winger said. "He did a great job for us tonight. He's put together an impressive string of games."
Post Falls (10-1, 1-1) outscored Lake City 37-21 in the second half to pull away. The Trojans used a 10-0 run midway through the third quarter to take a 55-46 lead before a Colton Carlson 3-pointer broke the run with a minute remaining in the third quarter.
“I was impressed with the way Post Falls played tonight,” Winger said. “Hillman played a great game for them. Both (Marcus) Colbert and (Connor) Hill get most the accolades and I thought we did a good job on them, but they did their stuff well. We got scattered a bit in the second half.”
McLean added he told his team to play with more energy on defense in the second half.
“We didn’t take anything away tonight in the first half,” McLean said. “We didn’t have any energy or execute our stuff very well. Our goal was to wear down (Chris) Wheelock in the second half, and it worked.”
With the Post Falls win, the Trojans created a four-way tie for the 5A IEL lead at 1-1 heading into Friday’s games, where Lake City will host Lewiston, and Post Falls will travel to Coeur d’Alene.
“We probably play in the toughest league up here,” McLean said. “Everyone in our league does something different, but they all do it well.”
“In this league, there’s never a night off,” Winger said. “We’ve got to be able to protect our home court to be successful on Friday. There are battles each night and we’ve got to take care of it on the road somewhere.”
Lake City 19 21 11 10 — 61
Post Falls 17 21 21 16 — 75
LAKE CITY — Bevacqua 2, Smith 2, Wheelock 11, Carlson 8, Turner 0, Hartz 8, Smyly 27, Mitchell 0, Guice 5.
POST FALLS — English 2, Gonzales 4, Hill 15, Anderson 6, Valente 0, Thoreson 4, Colbert 12, Hillman 19, Lickfold 10.