5A INLAND EMPIRE LEAGUE BOYS BASKETBALL: Coeur d'Alene holds on to beat Post Falls, stay in 5A IEL race
<p>SHAWN GUST/Press Coeur d’Alene High’s Brody Lundblad goes up against Post Falls’ Wyatt Millsap for a shot in the third quarter Saturday in Coeur d’Alene.</p>
<p>SHAWN GUST/Press Post Falls Zach Hillman (24) extends above Coeur d’Alene’s Sam Matheson while putting up a shot in the second quarter.</p>
COEUR d’ALENE — To be the champ, you’ve got to beat the champ — and after two seasons and 11 straight Post Falls league victories, someone has finally done it.
But it sure wasn’t easy for Coeur d’Alene, as Post Falls whittled a 21-point third-quarter lead down to four points with a minute remaining before the host Vikings closed out a 74-66 decision at Elmer Jordan Court.
“Those last four minutes were tough, but we were able to get it done,” Vikings coach Kurt Lundblad said after his team improved to 15-4, 4-2 in the 5A Inland Empire League. “We took care of our business, and we’ll see how the rest of the league plays out.”
Post Falls (14-6, 4-1) suffered its first league loss since the 2013-14 season, and has one IEL game remaining Friday at Lewiston. The Bengals are 3-2 in the league after winning at Lake City on Saturday.
“Coeur d’Alene, for the first three quarters, played with much more urgency than we did,” Trojans coach Mike McLean said. “We didn’t play with that sense of urgency defensively, and they killed us with their rebounding, especially in the first half.”
After an evenly-played first quarter, the Vikings closed out the second quarter on an 11-2 run to take control of the game. The spurt ended with Sam Matheson’s coast-to-coast, buzzer-beating layup which put Coeur d’Alene ahead 34-27 at intermission.
The Viking onslaught continued in the third quarter. Max McCullough (20 points) of Post Falls opened the period with two free throws, then CHS scored the next 15 points. Junior Brody Lundblad, who sank five 3-pointers in the game, began driving to the basket with regularity to either get to the line or find open teammates for easy baskets.
Two Jakob Lynn free throws, then Will McElver’s 3-pointer off Lynn’s assist gave the Vikings a 52-31 lead with 2:17 left in the third quarter.
“We had good ball movement ... and hitting those open 3s opens the lane for all of us,” said Brody Lundblad, who finished with 23 points.
His father and head coach was also impressed by his team’s defense in the first three periods.
“Offensively, we hit some shots, but we also dug in and just played a lot better on defense than the last time we played them,” Kurt Lundblad added. “Stopping dribble penetration, rebounding — those were the big reasons we were able to take that lead.”
Anyone who thought the game was over thought wrong, though, as Post Falls senior Zach Hillman and reserve guard Cameron McKeown provided a spark late in the third quarter.
McKeown hit two baskets, then stole the ball and found David Bourgard for a layup which trimmed the CHS lead to 53-40 after three periods.
“Cameron and Mark (Haines), their energy off the bench transformed the whole team. They sparked our comeback,” McLean said.
In the fourth quarter, Hillman repeatedly drove the lane for baskets or foul shots as he and fellow senior McCullough scored 27 of their combined 39 points in the game’s final nine minutes.
Both team’s No. 24s — Hillman and CHS standout Joey Naccarato — guarded each other for much of the contest, and while Naccarato (12 points), a junior, posted up Hillman for first-half baskets, the Post Falls senior eventually used his quickness to pile up five fouls on his opponent.
“Those two are both absolute warriors,” coach Lundblad said of Hillman and Naccarato. “There’s no quit in either of them ... I’ve enjoyed watching them play for years now, and they both played well tonight.”
After Naccarato fouled out, the Trojans turned up their full-court pressure, forcing three turnovers. McCullough’s scoop layup with 1:04 remaining cut the margin to 67-63, but Lundblad blocked McCullough’s next layup attempt, and CHS closed out the game with 7-for-8 free-throw shooting in the final minute.
“Making free throws was key for us, and our confidence — we had to have that,” said Viking junior Bryce Bronson, who scored 14 points. “When Joey fouled out we had to scramble a bit but we finished it off.”
Coeur d’Alene outrebounded Post Falls 32-20 and shot 25 for 45 (55.5 percent) from the field.
The Vikings host Moscow and Sandpoint next Friday and Saturday to close out the regular season.
Post Falls 17 10 13 26 — 66
Coeur d’Alene 16 18 19 21 — 74
POST FALLS — McLean 8, Millsap 0, McCullough 20, Pfennigs 7, Hillman 19, Bourgard 7, McCliment-Call 0, McKeown 5, Haines 0.
COEUR d’ALENE — Lundblad 23, Lynn 11, Matheson 6, Bronson 14, Naccarato 12, Yankoff 2, McElver 6, Kofmehl 0, Lee 0.