5A INLAND EMPIRE LEAGUE BOYS BASKETBALL: Rivals on the floor
<p>Coeur d’Alene High School’s Brody Lundlblad is throw away from a skirmish on the court by Post Falls’ Dalton Thompson in the fourth quarter Saturday in Post Falls.</p>
<p>Post Fall High’s Jake Blakney looks up the court for an outlet after gaining control of a loose ball under the Vikings’ net in the third quarter.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - The last time the Post Falls High boys basketball team lost a 5A Inland Empire League game, it was last year - six days before Valentine's Day.
Seven days before this year's Valentine's Day, the host Trojans remained red hot - or perhaps orange-and-black hot - by winning their 10th consecutive game and sixth straight in league play, beating Coeur d'Alene on Saturday at The Arena, 71-65 in overtime.
"As far as streaks go in this conference, we'll take it night by night," Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. "Anybody who worries about streaks in this conference won't coach in this conference any more. In our program, we've been in this situation before, with this success, so our players know from the standpoint of the program, we take it one game at a time. Our goal coming into this season was to become league champions. That's the only goal we've talked about. Now we want to finish it off."
Trojan point guard Max McCullough scored 13 of his game-high 22 points after halftime, which had Post Falls (19-1, 5-0) leading, 38-30. With 3:24 left in overtime, the 5-foot-9 junior hit the go-ahead basket with a layup to give the Trojans a 62-60 lead.
After Luke Anderson drilled a corner 3-pointer to make it 65-60, Vikings sophomore guard Joey Naccarato hit a free throw to make it 65-61 with 1:44 left.
McCullough sank two free throws with 55 seconds left to make it a 68-63 ballgame, which forced Coeur d'Alene to foul toward the end.
With 14 seconds left, with the Trojans ahead 71-65, Coeur d'Alene missed a 3-point attempt, which would have made it a one-possession game. Post Falls rebounded the ball and it was game over. Lundblad scored 13 points and had five assists.
"We clutched up, knocked down our free throws and kept playing," McCullough said. "I tried to get to the rim and my shots were fallling. We knew it was going to come down like that, it's always a good game between Coeur d'Alene and us, but we kind of thought we didn't think we played our best game, we let them back in it. We thought they gave us a second chance with that foul."
McCullough was referring to a foul called on Colby Daniels with 32.7 seconds left, on a 3-point shot McCullough missed. He stepped up and made all three free throws, tying the game at 60 to set up overtime. Just 24 seconds earlier, Brody Lundblad hit a three that put Cd'A (12-7, 2-4) ahead, 60-57.
Joey Naccarato kept the Vikings in the game the entire way, scoring 21 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field and 9-for-12 from the foul line, plus he grabbed nine rebounds.
"Joey's motor doesn't stop," Coeur d'Alene Kurt Lundblad said. "He's full speed ahead, an absolute warrior. Post Falls is second in the state for a reason. Not many teams go into Post Falls down 12 (50-38 with 2:31 left in the third quarter) and battle back. Most of our games have been close and three have gone to overtime. I'm really proud of our kids."
With 2:11 left in the game and Post Falls with possession of the ball, things got a little testy, but an incident was over nearly as quickly as it began just inside the 3-point line toward the stands of the visiting Coeur d'Alene fans. Post Falls senior post Jake Blakney had the ball knocked away from him by Joey Naccarato. Anderson dove and knocked the ball to McCullough, then Daniels fought for the ball and forced a jump ball and a whistle by an official. As Tony Naccarato tried to pick up Daniels off the floor, Dalton Thompson grabbed Tony Naccarato ... and after a brief skirmish, the ball was awarded to the Vikings.
"I thought the key for us during the whole game from the whole incident on, I thought our kids did a good job continuing to execute," McLean said. "Even though in this highly-charged, emotional environment, our kids still executed and did what we asked them to do ... I don't know exactly how it (the incident) started, but you have Coeur d'Alene and us, it's a rivalry. We battle each other and our kids work hard. That's just boys who've worked for a lot of years to get in this environment, sometimes tempers flare. Both teams handled it very well."
Lundblad agreed.
"It's an emotional game and it's unfortunate to see that," Lundblad said. "No one wants to see that."
Dalton Thompson scored 17 points and had four assists for Post Falls, Jack Millsap scored nine points with seven rebounds and McCullough had two steals.
Coeur d'Alene's Tony Naccarato finished with 12 points and eight rebounds.
Both teams play Friday, with Post Falls playing its regular season finale at The Arena against Lewiston. Coeur d'Alene plays a nonleague game at Elmer Jordan Court against Moscow.
Coeur d'Alene 14 16 13 17 5 - 65
Post Falls 25 13 16 6 11 - 71
COEUR d'ALENE - Sparks 4, J. Naccarato 21, T. Naccarato 12, Daniels 15, Lundblad 13, Matheson 0, Lynn 0.
POST FALLS - Thompson 17, Blakney 3, J. Millsap 9, McCullough 22, Anderson 5, Hillman 4, Pfennigs 2, McLean 2, W. Millsap 7.