Might as well jump

POST FALLS — “Thank God for seniors.”

Thanks to seniors Dani Failor and Hallie Gennett, the Post Falls Trojans are headed somewhere they haven’t been since 2008.

A state girls basketball tournament.

Failor had 21 points and 11 rebounds as the top-seeded Trojans defeated the second-seeded Coeur d’Alene Vikings 55-45 in the 5A Region 1 tournament championship game on Tuesday night at The Arena to advance to next week’s state tournament at the Idaho Center in Nampa.

“Thank God for seniors,” second-year Post Falls coach Marc Allert said. “With Dani, we don’t hardly worry about her anymore. Her mental focus has been better than it’s ever been. We honestly know what we’re going to get out of her.”

“Dani Failor played absolutely tremendous,” Coeur d’Alene coach Dale Poffenroth said. “This was the best game I’ve seen Dani ever play in her life and we didn’t have an answer for that.”

Gennett had 17 points — nine in the second quarter — and nine rebounds for Post Falls.

“Hallie’s been in a little bit of a funk lately,” Allert said. “But she played through it and hit some shots early on and got herself out of it.”

Post Falls has six seniors on its roster.

“We’re not finished yet,” Failor said. “We’ve still got some work to do.”

Post Falls (21-1), which won its first regional title since 2008, opens the state tournament against the second-place team from District 3 (the Boise area) next Thursday at 12:15 p.m. PST.

Coeur d’Alene (17-5) will host Lewiston (16-6) in the second-place game Thursday at 7 p.m., with the winner advancing to a state 5A play-in game Saturday at Grangeville High.

“It’s awesome, just plain and simple,” Failor said. “We’ve worked so hard all year and it’s nice to finally have our hard work pay off.”

“We’ve all just meshed really well together,” said Gennett, who transferred from University High in Spokane last summer. “I’m really excited to have that fun experience at state with this group of kids and I know we can do really good as long as we play like we do.”

Post Falls opened a 41-26 lead after three quarters, but a 13-2 run at the start of the fourth quarter pulled the Vikings within 43-39 with 4:12 left.

“I told the kids at halftime that they’re going to make a run,” Allert said. “This game was going to get close at some point. They’re a good team and not going to go away. Dale’s going to make his adjustments and they’ve got some pride and knew they were going to come back. We did a couple of dumb things here and there and had a couple of bad shots — but we got ourselves regrouped with all those seniors, did what we needed to do at the end of the game.”

Coeur d’Alene beat Lewiston 52-36 in the opening round of the tournament last Friday at The Arena.

“The basket just had a lid on it in the first half and it just didn’t go very well in the first half,” Poffenroth said. “It was one of those games where they just beat us, just like the game we won the other day (against Lewiston on Friday). Everything went right for us then, and tonight, everything went right for them. They’re a good ballclub and just did a good job tonight. Hats off to them.”

The fourth-quarter run by Coeur d’Alene was done with starters Sydni Parker, Kendalyn Brainard and Sydney Williams on the bench and reserves Brittany Tackett, Tabitha Wellsandt and Sara Chalich on the floor, along with starters Caelyn Orlandi and Madison Sumner.

“All three of those kids (that started) were injured, so I figured we’ve got to play again later this week,” Poffenroth said. “It was good for those kids on the floor, then Marc got smart and changed the defense. I thought he was going to stay in zone, but our girls were picking it apart. But they changed it up and slowed it down a bit. But those kids (reserves) played well.”

Sumner finished with 13 points, Orlandi 10 for Coeur d’Alene.

“Madison had a great game,” Poffenroth said. “She’s a spark plug for us. She works hard and runs up and down the floor and always goes up against someone that’s bigger and stronger than she is — and she picked up the scoring slack for us tonight.”

Coeur d’Alene has advanced to eight straight state tournaments — playing for the championship six years in a row before finishing third last season.

“We’ve still got to get by Lewiston,” Poffenroth said. “And that’s not going to be easy to do.”

Coeur d’Alene 4 13 9 19 — 45

Post Falls 13 14 14 14 — 55

COEUR d’ALENE — Parker 2, Sumner 13, Chalich 1, Orlandi 10, Tackett 5, Brainard 4, Wellsandt 2, Williams 8.

POST FALLS — Allert 3, Gonzales 0, K. King 0, Meehan 0, Smith 2, Litalien 10, Gennett 17, Runkle 2, Failor 21, Waller 0.