LAKE CITY INVITATIONAL: Trojans get late heroics

COEUR d’ALENE — Max McCullough hit a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer, dribbling coast-to-coast to carry the Post Falls Trojans to a 51-50 win over the Timberline Wolves of Boise in the Lake City Holiday Invitational on Wednesday.

McCullough scored 30 points for Post Falls (7-4). Jake Pfennigs scored seven points and he had 10 rebounds.

“We were down two points with five seconds to go,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “Max went the length of the court off a missed free throw and made a 3 at the buzzer and he was fouled as he was shooting the three and that’s how the game ended. This was a great holiday tournament. The whole thing, Lake City did a great job. We played three quality opponents. We’re very pleased with our games. We found a way to win on a night where we didn’t shoot very well. Our defense is what kept us in this game. We shot better in the second half.”

Brock Rice of Timberline, the son of Boise State men’s basketball coach Leon Rice, scored 19 points.

Post Falls plays Tuesday at Moses Lake in nonleague play.

Timberline 9 15 11 15 — 50

Post Falls 9 6 16 20 — 51

TIMBERLINE — Venner 4, Rice 19, Wagner 7, Ford 0, Larson 8, Livingston 2, Clayton 10.

POST FALLS — McLean 0, Millsap 6, McKeown 0, McCullough 30, McCliment-Call 0, Bougard 0, Pfennigs 7, Gering 0, Hillman 8.

Mountain Home 63, Lake City 52: The Lake City boys basketball coaches and players have a pretty simple New Year’s resolution: put all phases of the game together, for four quarters.

Once again, the Timberwolves played a strong first half on Wednesday against Mountain Home, in their Lake City Invitational finale. But the hosts sputtered in the third quarter and played catch-up the rest of the way before losing 63-52 to the Tigers.

“They’re playing hard, doing some good things ... but we’re really struggling to put four quarters together,” T-Wolves coach Jim Winger said of his players. “We played some good basketball in this tournament, but just had some lapses that really cost us.”

Lake City (2-6) led 30-27 at intermission, with guard Kenny Louis-McGee scoring nine of his 14 points in the first half. The T-Wolves also were strong on the boards, outrebounding Mountain Home (7-2) 19-7 in the first half.

The momentum didn’t last long in the third quarter. After two free throws from James Carlson, the Tigers hit wide-open 3-pointers on their next three possessions — two of them by Marcus Equsquiza, who led all scores with 28 points.

Lake City made only 1-of-9 shots in the third period, and three free throws by Equsquiza put the visitors ahead 46-36 early in the final quarter. The rest of the game was a free-throw shooting contest, as Mountain Home sank 18-of-27 attempts in the fourth quarter as three Timberwolves fouled out.

Duncan Butler had 13 points and five rebounds off the bench for Lake City, while Carlson added eight points and eight rebounds.

Jymon Garretson scored 15 points for Mountain Home, which won all three games at the Lake City tourney.

The Timberwolves will ring in 2016 on Friday with a game at Eastmont High School in Wenatchee, Wash.

Mountain Home 17 10 16 20 — 63

Lake City 18 12 6 16 — 52

MOUNTAIN HOME — Bethel 8, Smith 4, Equsquiza 28, Woodruff 7, McKenzie 0, Garretson 15, Klein-Walden 1, Garrett 0, Morris 0. Totals 16-35 FG, 23-36 FT, 63.

LAKE CITY — Louie-McGee 14, Kolden 4, Hunter 7, Carlson 8, Manzardo 0, Butler 13, Womelduff 2, Flolo 2, Hartz 0, Pollow 2. Totals 18-42, 13-18, 52.

South Kitsap 65, Lakeland 55: Eric Wattree led all scorers with 20 point as South Kitsap poured it on in the second half to get past the Hawks.

Andrew Knight finished with nine points and eight rebounds for Lakeland (3-7), which travels to Sandpoint on Tuesday.

“The first three minutes of the second half (South Kitsap) came out and played us really tough,” Hawks assistant coach Bill Ryan said. “They took control and that hurt us, even though we played pretty even from there.”

S. Kitsap 14 15 16 20 — 65

Lakeland 21 8 9 17 — 55

SOUTH KITSAP — Stretts 6, McMorris 3, Bayne 10, Byrd 4, Williams 5, Wattree 20, Tomkiez 17, Lewis 0.

LAKELAND — Horne 3, McDaniel 0, D. Knight 5, Vahey 2, David 20, McDevitt 5, Zubaly 9, A. Knight 9, Ray 2.

Kentwood 69, Sandpoint 50: Davan Norris had 23 points and three rebounds for the Bulldogs in a loss to the Conquerors.

Carlos Collado had 12 points and Robbie Johnson had five rebounds for Sandpoint (2-8).

Rayvaughn Bolton scored 17 points for Kentwood (8-2), which finished the tournament unbeaten after beating Post Falls on Monday and Lake City on Tuesday.

Kentwood 23 15 25 6 — 69

Sandpoint 14 10 19 7 — 50

KENTWOOD — Lee 0, Millon 3, Huerta 8, Bolton 17, Benson 0, Kramer 2, Roggenbach 16, Gill 0, Sheppard 5, Sanchez 4, LuBom 12, Goldwire 0.

SANDPOINT — Thompson 0, Curtiss 0, Reeves 0, Hunter 0, Norris 23, Sundquist 5, Rockwell 0, Johnson 2, Davis 0, Stockton 0, Perry 4, Collado 12, McClaughlin 4.