BATTLE FOR THE PRAIRIE PIG: Post Falls speeds to wins
<p>SHAWN GUST/Press Post Falls High School’s Kennady McComb (21) dribbles up the court after stealing the ball from Lakeland’s Faith Bodak (22) during the first quarter of the Prairie Pig Friday in Rathdrum.</p>
<p>SHAWN GUST/Press Post Falls High School’s Jacob Pfennigs (15) takes the ball up the court as Lakeland’sDan McDevitt defends during the first quarter of the Prairie Pig Friday in Rathdrum.</p>
<p>SHAWN GUST/Press From left, Lakeland High’s Tauna Kirk and Brittany Charles battle Post Falls’ Glory Ellison and AubreAnna Johnson for a loose ball during the second quarter.</p>
<p>SHAWN GUST/Press Lakeland’s Forest Zubaly looks for a passing option against Post Falls defenders Jayden Gering, center, and Tanner McCliment-Call, left, during the first half.</p>
RATHDRUM — It took four seconds for the Post Falls Trojans boys basketball team to score its first basket Friday night vs. the Lakeland Hawks.
The following baskets came nearly as quick.
Fueled by a pressure defense and a quick-offense, Post Falls (4-0) piled up 27 points in the first quarter en route to a 68-39 victory over Lakeland (1-2) in the boys Prairie Pig spirit game at Hawk Court.
“In the preseason, before we get to league, our No. 1 concern is us, and are we getting better,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “All of our preseason opponents, we use that as a way to measure ourselves — are we getting better. And I thought tonight, we took some steps to get better. We’ve not been offensive rebounding the way I expect us to, and tonight we did a better job of trying to get some offensive rebounds.”
In the girls game, Post Falls (5-1) scored the game’s first 22 points en route to a 53-15 victory over Lakeland (2-3).
After the game, Lakeland was awarded the Pig for winning the spirit competition.
BOYS
Post Falls 68, Lakeland 39: On the opening tip, Jake Pfennigs tapped the ball to Wyatt Millsap, who fed a streaking Blake McLean for a layup and the Trojans were quickly on the board. Post Falls made 11 of 17 from the field for a 27-10 lead after one quarter. The Trojans led by as much as 26 in the first half.
“They’re a very good team,” Lakeland coach Dave Stockwell said of Post Falls. “Way quicker than we are. My kids are very young; we have virtually no previous varsity experience, except for one guy, and I thought we grew. They didn’t stop pressing us from the get-go, and we started to handle it a little better. We grew up tonight, so that was good for us.”
Nine Trojans scored, led by senior guard Max McCullough with 17 points. Pfennigs scored eight of his 10 points in the first four minutes of the third quarter. Zach Hillman also had 10 points as Post Falls forced 22 Lakeland turnovers.
“Our guards, in their pressure all over the court, are getting better at reading each other,” McLean said. “We have six guys coming in that haven’t really played with our first five, and we’re just learning how to mesh and read each other and make the correct rotations.”
Sophomore guard Kaden Davis hit four 3-pointers and scored a team-high 15 points for Lakeland, whose state tourney qualifiers from last year were hit hard by graduation. Senior Forest Zubaly added 11.
“I was very impressed with Lakeland’s young guards,” McLean said. “All those kids are pretty inexperienced, and they came right at us, and in the long run, that’s going to make them better. They never quit; they kept battling and battling.”
Post Falls travels to Pasco tonight to play Chiawana at 7:30. Lakeland plays at Colville today at 4.
Post Falls 27 20 19 2 — 68
Lakeland 10 14 10 5 — 39
POST FALLS — McLean 7, Millsap 7, McKeown 3, McCullough 17, Haines 2, McCliment-Call 7, Bourgard 5, Pfennigs 10, Gering 0, Hillman 10.
LAKELAND — Horne 2, McDaniel 0, D. Knight 1, Cysewski 2, Davis 15, McDevitt 4, Zubaly 11, A. Knight 2, Ray 2.
GIRLS
Post Falls 53, Lakeland 15: Melody Kempton scored 18 points for Post Falls, which forced Lakeland into 14 turnovers in the first quarter, 22 in the first half, and 39 for the game.
The Trojans are a talented, deep bunch, but with most of the players still new to the varsity level this season, “We’ve got some work to do,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said. “There are some things we need to take care of in practice, change some of the things we’re doing.”
Like what?
“A lot of it’s learning the speed and the physicalness and the intensity we need to play at this level,” he said. “We’re still trying to get our roles established a little bit. They’re still young kids; they’ve still got a lot to learn. We’ve got all the pieces, we’ve got to learn to do it for 32 minutes; we can’t do it in spurts.”
One of the talented newcomers is Sydney Parks, a 6-2 sophomore forward who scored 13 points off the bench against the Hawks.
“She’s playing with a little more confidence,” Allert said. “She’s a big key for us; she gives us that extra post, gives us a good rotation inside.”
Lakeland went 10 minutes before scoring its first point, and 12 minutes before its first basket. Senior Savannah Pruitt scored seven of her game-high eight points in the first half for Lakeland.
Lakeland plays at Colville today at 2:30.
Post Falls plays host to Chiawana on Tuesday.
Post Falls 19 11 12 11 — 53
Lakeland 0 9 4 2 — 15
POST FALLS — Ellison 1, Morris 5, Gennett 4, Brennan 4, McComb 4, Robinson 0, C. Johnson 2, Kempton 18, Parks 13, A. Johnson 2.
LAKELAND — Bunch 0, Edinger 1, Bodak 0, Kirk 4, Charles 0, Pruitt 8, Gatten 0, Boyer 0, Dowd 0, Bilski 0.