5A INLAND EMPIRE LEAGUE BOYS BASKETBALL: Trojans smother T-Wolves
<p>Post Fall’s Jack Millsap steals the ball from Lake City’s Jeremy Hughs in Lake City’s offensive half during the first half of the game on Tuesday night at Lake City.</p>
<p>Lake City’s Collin Hunter attempts to break through Post Fall’s Jake Blakney, left, and Blake McLean during the first half of the Timberwolves game against the Trojans on Tuesday night.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Several sets of fingernails were spared a good chewing Tuesday night.
After four nailbiters in four games between Kootenai County teams in the 5A Inland Empire League to date, the Post Falls Trojans eliminated the suspense early and dominated the host Lake City Timberwolves in a 63-32 trouncing.
Post Falls (17-1, 4-0 5A IEL) pushed the pace early with half-court and full-court pressure, and mixed in some excellent ball movement to boot.
"Before the game I challenged our guys - I want to play our style," Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. "So that means we have to force the issue at times with full-court pressure, just to get it to where we want it to be, that's what we're going to do tonight."
The win, coupled with Tuesday's loss by Coeur d'Alene (12-6, 2-3) at Lewiston (8-10, 1-3), clinched the 5A IEL for Post Falls. The Trojans will be the No. 1 seed when the 5A Region 1 tournament begins Feb. 20.
"Like I told our guys, the outcome tonight was determined by our week of practice," McLean said. "I thought our kids had a very good week of preparation, preparing for what they like to do, and what they did last time (keeping the pace slow in a 46-40 loss at Post Falls). So I'm very proud of our guys ... I don't know if I'd say we fixed the situation, but we came out and executed and got better."
Post Falls jumped out to a 19-4 lead after one quarter, using its pressure to force Lake City (8-9, 2-3) into 11 turnovers in the quarter, 15 for the first half. Also, the Trojans got several offensive rebounds against the Timberwolves' zone defense.
Dalton Thompson scored 12 of his 18 points in the first half for Post Falls. Jake Pfennigs added 12 points, Max McCullough 11. Thompson hit three of the Trojans' eight 3-pointers.
Post Jake Blakney scored all six of his points in a 10-0 first-quarter run where Post Falls took command. The Trojans were unselfish, making the extra pass to set up wide-open shots.
"I thought we shared the ball very well tonight," McLean said. "And I thought we battled on the boards; they're bigger than us on the boards, but we're not a team that's going to make excuses, or a program that's going to make excuses. We're going to go get rebounds."
Nick Hancock scored a game-high 19 points for Lake City, which has lost four straight games, the last two by a combined 64 points. The Timberwolves finished with 21 turnovers.
"Obviously something's not right," Lake City coach Jim Winger said. "Our last two games have not been like what we've done the entire year. ... I can't put my finger on it quite yet, and I need to do that in a hurry.
"I'm not willing to throw away what we did in our other league games, and the way we played against Kentridge and some of those teams. During the year, there's always severe ups and severe downs, and right now we're in a down point in the season. ... Post Falls came in loaded for bear, and we were not ready to play, we did not play well, and they played great, and we found ourselves in a bad situation in a hurry. And, right now, to be quite honest, I've been doing this for quite a while, and I don't have a lot of answers right now. We're going to have to find some in a hurry."
Post Falls visits Sandpoint on Thursday. Lake City travels to Lewiston on Saturday.
Post Falls 19 14 11 19 - 63
Lake City 4 8 12 8 - 32
POST FALLS - McLean 6, W. Millsap 0, McCullough 11, Anderson 2, Flaa 0, English 0, Pfennigs 12, Thompson 18, Hillman 6, J. Millsap 2, Blakney 6.
LAKE CITY - Goggin 4, Dotson 2, Hunter 0, Hughes 2, Pasquale 5, Colwell 0, Mitchell 0, Hancock 19.