Hall's 3 wins it for Trojans

COEUR d'ALENE - As the final seconds ticked off, Nick Hall wound with the ball in his hands at the top of the key - and not a lot of options.

So Hall let fly from just behind the arc, and drilled a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left to lift No. 4 seed Post Falls past No. 3 Coeur d'Alene 41-40 in a 5A Region 1 boys basketball tournament loser-out game Thursday night at Elmer Jordan Court.

"I saw that there was two seconds left, and I just tried to get up a quick shot," said Hall, a 5-foot-5 junior guard. "It looked like it was going in."

Post Falls (10-13), which has won twice on the road in the last three days in the regional tournament, plays Eagle (13-11), the fifth-place finisher from District 3, on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Grangeville in a state play-in game.

Coeur d'Alene finished 13-10.

Post Falls had Thursday night's game all but wrapped up with 2 1/2 minutes left, when Tim Mueller threw down his third two-handed dunk of the game to extend the Trojans' lead to 38-30.

Coeur d'Alene then picked up the pressure defensively and answered with a 10-0 run to take the lead.

After a made free throw by the Vikings, Ryan Walde stole the ball in the backcourt and fed a streaking Tony Naccarato for a layup, and he was fouled. He missed the free throw, but the Vikings corralled the rebound, and Justin Carpenter scored in the lane.

After a Post Falls turnover, Naccarato scored on a putback, then Colby Daniels sank a 3-pointer from deep on the right wing with about 1:20 left to put Coeur d’Alene up 40-38.

But the Trojans didn’t wilt — even after missing two free throws on their next possession.

“Our coach (Mike McLean), he keeps our emotions on one plane,” Hall said. We don’t get nervous; we just do what we have to do. We were just focused on a new goal.”

The Vikings then committed a traveling violation to give the ball back to Post Falls with 37.7 seconds left.

The Trojans called timeout with 20 seconds left and worked for the final shot — which turned out to come from Hall, who nailed his third 3-pointer of the night on five attempts.

“To be honest with you, we weren’t necessarily going for the game winner,” McLean said. “But Nick hit that shot, and that’s what players do. And if you want to be a player, that’s what you do. In a situation like that, there’s not a lot of coaching involved. ... I just told the guys to make a play, and that’s what Nick did.”

“I didn’t think that guy would make the shot — kudos to him,” Coeur d’Alene interim head coach Darren Taylor said. “One he’ll never forget, I imagine. We had them bottled up, and I guess we took a breath at the wrong time.”

Coeur d’Alene called timeout with 1.9 seconds left, then missed a running 40-footer at the buzzer.

Post Falls, which lost twice to Coeur d’Alene during the regular season by a combined 27 points, tore up the Vikings’ man-to-man defense early. Braden Davenport had three baskets and an assist as the Trojans jumped out to a 13-3 lead after 5 minutes. The Vikings switched to a zone for most of the rest of the game.

“Our man (defense) was awful wasn’t it?,” Taylor said. “If I had started in the 2-3, we wouldn’t have had a 10(-point) hole to climb out of.”

Post Falls made just 2 of 15 from the floor in the second quarter, and Coeur d’Alene pulled into a 20-all tie at halftime.

Then Post Falls came out in a zone defense of its own to start the second half, holding the Vikings to 10 points over the first 13 1/2 minutes of the half.

Neither team enjoyed much success against the other’s zone defense.

Hall’s nine points led Post Falls. Mueller finished with eight. Matt Hillman’s 3-pointer late in the third quarter quieted Coeur d’Alene’s momentum, and started the Trojans on a 12-3 run, capped by another Mueller dunk.

Naccarato led all scorers with 15.

“We’ve done lots of things to lose games,” McLean said. “All season, we’ve been our biggest opponent. Coeur d’Alene amped up their pressure, but that’s something we knew and, for whatever reason, it got away from us. But what I’m the most proud of, I thought our guys stayed together — there was no dissension within our ranks. When adversity hit, instead of splintering off and pointing fingers, we stayed together and they believed.”

Coeur d’Alene went 3-3 under Taylor, who was a varsity assistant before he was promoted after head coach Kent Leiss was forced to resign three weeks ago amidst allegations from parents of Vikings players that he verbally abused the players.

“I just told them (the players, afterward), nobody deserved to go through all the adversity we’ve gone through,” Taylor said. “It certainly wasn’t any of their doing. I’m real proud of them all for still having the guts to fight back and have a chance to win.”

Post Falls 15 5 10 11 — 41

Coeur d’Alene 8 12 5 15 — 40

POST FALLS — Hall 9, McKeown 0, Davenport 6, Pfennigs 2, Jackson 3, Hillman 3, Mueller 8, Thompson 2, Corr 4, Koski 4.

COEUR d’ALENE — Paulsen 0, Walde 4, Tripp 3, Daniels 10, Carpenter 2, Naccarato 15, Moore 0, Hancock 0, Kluss 4, Hunter 2.