Post Falls shoots down Cd'A for state 5A berth

COEUR d'ALENE - While the weather outside Elmer Jordan Court was cold with sub-20 degree temperatures Saturday, Post Falls was red hot inside the gym.

The third-seeded Trojans were 6 for 8 from the 3-point line in the first half, as they took a 34-24 lead on their way to routing No. 1 seed Coeur d'Alene 76-55 in the second-place game of the 5A Region 1 tournament to earn a berth to state.

At 8 p.m. on Thursday, in the state 5A boys basketball tournament at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa, Post Falls (15-8) will play against District 3 No. 2 seed Rocky Mountain of Meridian (17-6), ranked third in the final state media poll. Coeur d'Alene, which finished 17-5, was second in the poll.

Trojan point guard Nick Hall's shooting was hot early, scoring 18 of his 20 points in the first half, on 7-of-11 shooting.

Post Falls shot 25 for 45 from the field, 8 for 15 from beyond the 3-point line, and made 16 of 20 free throws. Coeur d'Alene was a respectable 21 for 51 from the field, but struggled from beyond the 3-point line, sinking 3 of 16 shots.

"Nick was rolling," Trojans coach Mike McLean said. "As a senior point guard, I don't think he wanted the season to end and we have a bunch of seniors (nine overall) who didn't want their season to end. Max (McCullough) made some free throws and some layups down the stretch."

McCullough scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter, mostly on layups down the heart of the Vikings' defense and he made all seven of his free throws in the game, all in the fourth quarter.

"We were just trying to keep attacking and get to the (free-throw) line," McCullough said. "We just tried to play good defense and attack the boards."

Post Falls led from the get-go, 18-9 after the first quarter and 47-35 after the third quarter. Coeur d'Alene got as close as 55-44 on a 3-pointer by backup guard Cole Williams. Tony Naccarato did his part, scoring nine of his team-high 20 points in the fourth quarter for the Vikings. Justin Carpenter and Naccarato each had five rebounds and Austin Paulsen had three assists and two steals.

"I told the kids at halftime that they're not going to continue to shoot the ball that well," Vikings coach Kurt Lundblad said. "We'll get some stops and we'll get some buckets. And they just kept shooting the ball well in the second half (13 for 23) and it was a combination of them playing really well on offense and us not playing the way we're capable of on defense."

But the Trojans broke a 1-2-2 full-court trap just enough times to extend their lead. McCullough made a 3-point play to push the lead to 66-49 with three minutes remaining.

"We had a great week of practice," McLean said. "We had a good couple of weeks ... our kids have bought in and what we wanted to do is take away one or two things Coeur d'Alene liked to do and we just did one or two things to create easy scoring opportunities. That's the excitement in our locker room right now (Saturday) is not so much the win, but all the preparation that went into it, with our energy and our preparation that went into it. Today was a byproduct of our preparation."

Hall made five of his first eight shots, including two 3s, to score 14 points before the 2-minute mark of the second quarter.

"We felt like if they collapsed on defense, we'd kick it out to our 3-point shooters. We shot the ball pretty well," Hall said.

Coeur d'Alene could almost see the writing on the wall with one minute left in the third quarter, after a putback lay-in by Post Falls guard Joey Pfennigs made it 44-29.

"I think when they stretched the lead out to 15, knowing it's a do-or-die situation," Lundblad said. "It's a tough position to put 16- and 17-year-olds in. I think we got too far behind the 8-ball, Post Falls does a good job of understanding time and situation and they weren't in a hurry to do anything and did a good job of controlling the tempo and the clock."

Post Falls 18 16 13 29 - 76

Coeur d'Alene 9 15 11 20 - 55

POST FALLS - Thompson 8, Koski 5, Pfennigs 8, Hall 20, McCullough 22, Davenport 0, Hillman 7, Anderson 6, McKeown 0, Blakney 0.

COEUR d'ALENE - T. Naccarato 20, Kluss 4, Paulsen 0, Daniels 9, Carpenter 6, Williams 5, J. Naccarato 5, Lundblad 6.