5A REGION I GIRLS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: Freebies when it mattered

POST FALLS — All it took was a look.

As the visiting Lewiston Bengals were mounting another rally to try to fight back in the opening round of the 5A Region 1 girls basketball tournament on Friday night at The Arena, the Post Falls Trojans found a way, somehow, someway.

Senior AubreAnna Johnson hit a pair of free throws with 34 seconds remaining, her only two made free throws of the night in eight attempts, as the second-seeded Trojans held off the third-seeded Bengals 52-45 to advance to the championship game.

“We came together when it really mattered tonight,” Johnson said. “When we do that, we win games, and that’s important for us.”

Post Falls shot 5 for 20 from the free-throw line in the second half after going 9 of 10 in the first half.

“We just had a lot of things not go our way tonight,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said. “Some of it was caused ourselves and a lot was that Lewiston took us out of our stuff. But I thought we played with a lot of heart and came back. There was a couple of times where I thought we could have pulled away, but we never really got over the top.”

Post Falls (13-9) will travel to top-seeded Lake City (18-4) for Tuesday’s championship game at 7 p.m. Lewiston (14-7) will host No. 4 Coeur d’Alene (8-14) in a loser-out game, also at 7. Lake City beat visiting Coeur d’Alene 48-31 in the other opening round game on Friday.

Post Falls opened the game on an 8-0 run and led 12-3 before the Bengals closed the first quarter on a 5-0 run.

“We battled, but we didn’t play great down the stretch,” Lewiston coach Dave Cornelia said. “We just couldn’t get over the hump. Post Falls did a good job of getting a three-, four-point lead all night. We got it back to respectable. We didn’t lose the game in the fourth quarter, we lost it in the first quarter. You can’t rush shots like we did. You can’t give up second chance shots like we did. They were 9 of 10 from the free throw line in the first half, and we were 4 for 9, and that’s the difference right there. I thought we defended them better, but with our style and how we want to play, we’ve got to get into people and make some shots. And we didn’t tonight.”

Sophomore Melody Kempton had 18 points and 20 rebounds for Post Falls, which never trailed in the game.

“It was a great game,” Kempton said. “We played well, pulled it through and fought back. This is an important time for us right now. It’s regional time, so we’ve got to pull together and I knew I had to get every single rebound I could. We had to get the ball, and I knew I had to get it.”

Johnson scored four of her nine points in the fourth quarter, and also grabbed nine rebounds.

“Free throws are something I definitely struggled with throughout the season,” Johnson said. “I looked at coach, he said to get them up — I did — and they went it. I was pretty happy for that.”

Sophomore Bayley Brennan had 12 points and five assists for Post Falls, which has only one senior starter — Johnson.

“We’re really young and when we played together, we come together as a family,” Johnson said. “When adversity hits us, we look at each other and we say ‘step it up. They’re working harder than us. But adversity doesn’t seem to phase us.’”

“We have ‘no excuses, no regrets’ on the chalkboard right now in the locker room,” Allert said. “I told them to walk out of the gym giving everything they’ve got and knowing that you did all you could do. And Melody epitomized that tonight. She just plays hard all the time. With her athleticism, that helps too.”

“She willed her team to a win tonight,” said Cornelia of Kempton. “We’ve got Coeur d’Alene on Tuesday, and hopefully we can come back up here and play whoever is left. That’s what I told the girls in the locker room. We’re not done, we’ve got Tuesday, another game next Thursday and at Grangeville (for a state play-in next Saturday). That’s our plan and that’s what we’re hoping to get out of it.”

Abbey Roy and Alyssa Ralstin scored nine points each for Lewiston, which won at Post Falls during 5A Inland Empire League play.

Lewiston 8 17 9 11 — 45

Post Falls 12 18 11 11 — 52

LEWISTON — Weeks 8, Randall 3, Ralstin 9, Bailey 2, Cornelia 0, Roy 9, Kinzer 2, Bugbee 0, Cady 6, Havens 2, Johnson 0, Santana 4.

POST FALLS — Morris 4, Gennett 3, Brennan 12, McComb 2, Robinson 4, Kempton 18, Johnson 9, Ter Matten 0.

Lake City 48, Coeur d’Alene 31: Kate Maryon had six points, five assists and five rebounds off the bench for the Timberwolves in a win over the Vikings at Lake City High.

“We just started making some shots in the second quarter,” Lake City coach Bryan Kelly said. “We were getting good looks in the first quarter, but missed a couple of close ones.”

Whitney Meier scored 14 points for Lake City, including hitting a pair of 3-pointers to spark the offense in the second quarter.

“We just continued to work hard and started getting some good shots,” Kelly said. “It’s tough to play a team four times, but I thought defensively, we played well. Coeur d’Alene played hard, and they’re not going to go away.”

Taryn Horvath scored 12 points for Coeur d’Alene and Kelly Horning chipped in eight points and 11 rebounds.

“I thought we played really hard, but we didn’t shoot well,” said Coeur d’Alene coach Dale Poffenroth, whose team made 12 of 43 shots from the field. “Whitney (Meier) hit a couple threes and they made it a little lopsided. I thought we played pretty well.”

“I thought Taryn played great and Horning played great inside for them,” Kelly said.

Lauren Rewers had 12 points and five rebounds and Keara Simpson had 13 rebounds for Lake City.

Coeur d’Alene 9 7 11 4 — 31

Lake City 14 17 8 9 — 48

COEUR d’ALENE — Minerath 0, Morton 0, Horvath 12, Kane 0, Callahan 3, Fagan 6, Bojourquez 0, Rollins 0, Hollibaugh 2, Horning 8.

LAKE CITY — Dvorak 2, Carlson 4, K. Maryon 6, Rieken 5, Vershum 0, Rewers 11, O. Maryon 0, Meier 14, Simpson 6.