Post Falls, Coeur d'Alene to play for regional crown
COEUR d'ALENE - Trailing by seven points in the third quarter and with all the momentum against them, the Post Falls Trojans essentially took a deep breath - and responded.
Post Falls took the momentum back with a 13-0 run, and went on to beat the Lake City Timberwolves 50-37 in the first round of the 5A Region 1 boys basketball tournament Friday night at Coeur d'Alene High's Elmer Jordan Court.
"We talked in the timeout that we can't get rattled," Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. "This is just business; we need to handle our business and not take it personally, and try to take some of the unwanted emotion out of the game. We said we’ve got to relax, find their shooters, get stops and continue to execute and attack the rim.”
In the second game, top-seeded Coeur d’Alene jumped out to a 10-0 lead and went on to bury the fourth-seeded Lewiston Bengals 82-43.
“I thought it was our best game all year,” Coeur d’Alene coach Kent Leiss said. “We thought the No. 1 key tonight was, we had to be ready to play, regardless of who we were playing. We had to bring the energy and the defense.”
Coeur d’Alene (15-5) will play host to Post Falls (18-3) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the championship game for a berth in next week’s state tournament in Nampa. Also Tuesday at 7, Lake City (13-8) plays host to Lewiston (7-14) in a loser-out game.
Post Falls 50, Lake City 37: Lake City tried several different defenses on Post Falls — box-and-one, triangle-and-two, straight zone, sagging man to man.
And when junior Riley Moreen hit back-to-back 3-pointers, Lake City had built a 31-24 lead with 4:34 left in the third quarter.
Post Falls called timeout, then closed the quarter with an 11-0 run. Michael Hillman scored inside, Luke Thoreson sank a jumper in the lane, Marcus Colbert drilled a 3, then fed Taylor Valente for a baseline jumper. Seth Anderson provided the exclamation point by driving the baseline for a dunk. Hillman’s putback early in the fourth quarter completed the 13-0 run.
“We really didn’t panic,” McLean said of being down. “That’s something to be said for playing five seniors in that game — we’ve been in tight spots before. That’s why we go to Reno, that’s why we play in the NIC tournament, to get into environments like this. I’m really proud of our guys’ mental toughness that we kept looking ahead to the next play. And Seth’s dunk was a game-changer also.”
Lake City scored just two baskets and six points total over the last 12 1/2 minutes of the game, and was outscored 26-6.
“What really hurt us was help defense,” Lake City coach Jim Winger said. “We just weren’t there, we didn’t step up. And the other part, besides we missed some looks, is underneath we got manhandled. They played like they wanted it down the stretch, and we kinda took a step back. And against a team like Post Falls, momentum switches in a hurry.”
Colbert finished with a game-high 16 points for Post Falls. Hillman added 12 points, Valente 11, Thoreson nine. Hillman also had eight rebounds and two steals, and Anderson had seven rebounds. After shooting 7 for 23 from the field in the first half, Post Falls made 11 of 19 in the second half.
Moreen finished with 13 points and six rebounds for Lake City, and Kyle Guice had 10 points and five boards. The Timberwolves were 14 of 38 from the field.
Post Falls 10 10 15 15 — 50
Lake City 6 15 10 6 — 37
POST FALLS — Anderson 2, Valente 11, Thoreson 9, Colbert 16, Benner 0, Hillman 12, Koski 0.
LAKE CITY — Traverse 1, Pratt 4, Bevacqua 9, Ross 0, Ness 0, Moreen 13, Guice 10, Winger 0.
Coeur d’Alene 82, Lewiston 43: Joe Roletto scored eight of Coeur d’Alene’s first 10 points in the first two minutes. Two of those baskets came on 3-pointers, and after the second 3, he stole the inbounds pass and scored, forcing a quick Lewiston timeout.
Roletto finished with 15 points, including three 3-pointers. He also had four steals.
“We said we wanted to be ready tonight, and take it to them early,” Roletto said. “I’ve been working on my shooting a lot — a lot of shooting.”
“Joe Roletto sparked us,” Leiss said. “Travis Tackett and Joe Roletto have been our most-improved players this season.”
Tackett, a reserve, finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Chad Chalich added 11 points.
Deon Watson scored a game-high 17 points for Coeur d’Alene. He scored 10 in the first quarter, including a step-back jumper from the top of the key at the buzzer to give the Vikings a 23-5 lead after one.
Randon Fuentes scored 12 points to lead Lewiston, which went 0-6 in the 5A IEL this season.
Lewiston 5 9 14 15 — 43
Coeur d’Alene 23 16 23 20 — 82
LEWISTON — Fuentes 12, Pedersen 2, Madsen 0, Scott 4, Gaskill 0, Heitzman 3, Larson 3, Hewett-Steiger 5, Havens 8, Baerlocher 4, Boyer 2.
COEUR d’ALENE — Tackett 12, Roletto 15, Chalich 11, Daniels 8, Carpenter 0, Loy 0, Moore 3, Walde 0, Higbie 7, Naccarato 2, Watson 17, Blakley 7.