Vikings bounce back for third place
NAMPA - It sounded like a football locker room after Coeur d'Alene knocked off Borah of Boise 69-51 on Saturday morning at Columbia High in the third-place game of the state 5A boys basketball tournament.
"We'd rather be in the first-place game than the third-place game, but it still feels good to go out on a win," said Coeur d'Alene senior guard Andrew Baracco, who had 14 points, eight rebounds, four blocked shots, three assists and three steals. "We got pretty excited (in the locker room). We came out, and we wanted to win. ... I don't know; our team's a bunch of goobers - we pretty much went nuts when we won."
Coeur d'Alene (17-8) bounced back nicely from a 54-47 loss to Centennial of Boise in the semifinals Friday night at the Idaho Center in Nampa.
"I'm definitely proud of the seniors; it was a privilege to play with them," said junior Deon Watson, who had 19 points, six rebounds and three steals. "We stepped up tonight, and we didn't back down from that second challenge, since we failed on the first one."
Against the team that beat Post Falls in the first round, Coeur d'Alene took control of this one fairly early. Several Borah players got into foul trouble early, and Coeur d'Alene was shooting one-and-ones with two minutes left in the first quarter.
Chalich's basket hiked Coeur d'Alene's lead to 27-15 two minutes into the second quarter, though the Lions came back to within 35-29 at halftime.
Baracco hit a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to cap an 8-0 run and increase Coeur d'Alene's lead to 49-36. Borah never came closer than 11 points after that.
"Last night was disappointing, but this is a great group of guys," Coeur d'Alene coach Kent Leiss said. "It's not an accident they won the state football championship with guys like Jake (Matheson) and Chad (Chalich) and Deon. Basically we just challenged their character ... let's just give maximum effort for 32 minutes, and I thought they did that. We played one of our best games of the year - maybe our best game."
Chalich finished with a game-high 21 points for the Vikings.
Jordan Wright and Austin Scott led Borah (19-7) with nine points each. Ben Tucakovic, who scored 35 in an overtime victory over Post Falls in the first round, got into early foul trouble, sat much of the second half as well, finished with four points in 12 minutes of playing time.
Coeur d'Alene loses just two seniors in Baracco and Matheson.
"I think we can use this as a springboard to next season," Leiss said. "I've had maybe the most fun I've ever had coaching a team."
Borah 12 17 7 15 - 51
Coeur d'Alene 18 17 9 25 - 69
BORAH - Jones 8, Lorona 3, Corpus 0, McCutchen 0, Tucakovic 4, J. Wright 9, I. Wright 6, Shepard 1, Yager 3, Scott 9, Holubetz 8.
COEUR d'ALENE - Tackett 4, Matheson 4, Chalich 21, Roletto 2, Loy 0, Moore 0, Sutton 0, Higbie 5, Baracco 14, Watson 19. Totals 21-44 24-31 69.