Viking girls clinch No. 2 seed to regionals

COEUR d'ALENE - At times, with Lake City's girls packing in their zone defense, it seemed like all 10 players on the floor were inside the key.

Kinda hard to pass the ball through all that humanity.

But host Coeur d'Alene kept trying, and eventually - at least enough times on this night - got the ball to 6-foot-3 senior post Carli Rosenthal.

Rosenthal, surrounded by Timberwolves all night, dropped in eight of nine shots and finished with 20 points as fourth-ranked Coeur d'Alene beat fifth-ranked Lake City 51-42 in 5A Inland Empire League play at Elmer Jordan Court to earn the league's No. 2 seed to the Region 1 tournament starting next week.

"You can't force it - he's (Lake City coach Royce Johnston) packed in pretty tight with his zone," Coeur d'Alene coach Dale Poffenroth said. "But if you're patient and pass the ball and make good passes, then you're OK."

The two teams were already scheduled to meet again next Friday in Lewiston in the first round of the regional tournament. Thursday's game determined the second and third seeds, meaning if the city rivals meet again in a couple weeks to determine the region's second berth to state, the game would be played at Coeur d'Alene High.

In the boys game, fifth-ranked Lake City went back to its principles on defense - after getting away from that in two of its last three games, both losses - and held Coeur d'Alene to 15-of-56 shooting from the field in a 43-38 victory.

"Our goal (defensively) is to give you some 3s, but not to give you any 2s," Lake City coach Jim Winger said. "I thought we had them out of rhythm."

The doubleheader drew an estimated 1,200.

Coeur d’Alene 51, Lake City 42: The name over the visitors’ score on the scoreboard says “GUEST,” but it might have well read “BUTLER” during the first half.

Lake City senior Sydney Butler scored her team’s first 11 points, and scored 17 in the first half for the Timberwolves (15-5, 3-3 5A IEL), who trailed 21-19 at halftime.

In the second half, with junior Kyeli Parker guarding her for the most part, Butler went nearly 13 minutes without a point and ended up scoring four points to finish with 21.

“What we did at Lake City (defensively) didn’t work here. We went through about three kids until we finally found one that worked,” Poffenroth said.

On the other end, Viking senior Heather Baughman, a guard rotating through the high post, had four assists, most of them to Rosenthal, and also had four rebounds and three steals. Rosenthal also had 11 rebounds, and her back-to-back baskets at the end of the third quarter put the Vikings (16-4, 4-2) up 34-30 after three.

Erin Legel, who finished with 13 points, scored a 3-point play to put Coeur d’Alene up 43-37 with 2:44 left. The Vikings then went 8 for 8 from the line over the final 1:24 to inch away.

“It was a good basketball game considering the kids have been testing for two days, and both teams were spending time on academics,” said Poffenroth, known for his 3-hour practices. “I know I shortened my practices up so the kids could study.”

“The difference in the game was a couple of possessions in the fourth quarter where we didn’t execute, and they did,” Lake City coach Royce Johnston said.

Lake City 9 10 11 12 — 42

Coeur d’Alene 12 9 13 17 — 51

LAKE CITY — J. Butler 0, S. Butler 21, Kacalek 5, Lewis 0, Rowe 9, Ball 3, Kerr 0, Mitchell 4.

COEUR d’ALENE — Baughman 2, Orlandi 2, K. Parker 7, Legel 13, Petit 0, Rosenthal 20, Brainard 7, S. Williams 0.

Lake City 43, Coeur d’Alene 38: Lake City survived a 13-for-28 night at the foul line because of its defense on Coeur d’Alene’s top two scorers. Deon Watson went 3 for 18 and scored eight points, and Jake Matheson was 4 for 17 and scored nine points.

“If we can’t make shots, that’s the end of the story,” Coeur d’Alene coach Kent Leiss said. “They (the Timberwolves) always play good defense. They pack their man-to-man defense into the lane. They dare you to make shots, and we didn’t.”

Brady Smith had 14 points and seven rebounds for Lake City (12-4, 3-2 5A IEL), and Mark Smyly added 13 points. Lake City went 14 for 39 from the field and the game, on the last day of finals, was more hard-fought than well-played.

Lake City used a 10-0 run late in the second quarter to take a 23-21 halftime lead. Smyly’s jumper put LC up 27-25 midway through the third quarter, and the T-Wolves maintained a slim lead the rest of the way.

“Offensively ... we take points when we can get ’em some nights,” Winger said with a laugh. “I thought we got lazy (on defense) a couple of weeks ago, but tonight it was pretty good defense from start to finish.”

Chad Chalich grabbed six rebounds for Coeur d’Alene (11-6, 1-3).

On Tuesday, Lake City hosts Post Falls, and Coeur d’Alene travels to Moscow.

Lake City 7 16 7 13 — 43

Coeur d’Alene 13 8 4 13 — 38

LAKE CITY — Smith 14, Wheelock 11, Carlson 2, Turner 2, Hartz 1, Smyly 13, Guice 0.

COEUR d’ALENE — Tackett 0, Matheson 9, Chalich 4, Roletto 4, Loy 6, Higbie 0, Baracco 7, Watson 8.