5A REGION 1 PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: Lake City statement
<p>JAKE PARRISH/Press Lake City's Kate Maryon soars to the basket past Post Falls' Mackenzie Morris at the 5A Region 1 championship game on Tuesday at Lake City High School. The Timerwolves defeated the Trojans 42-31, securing their place at the state playoffs next week.</p>
<p>JAKE PARRISH/Press The Lake City girl's basketball team celebrates after defeating Post Falls in the 5A Region 1 championship game on Tuesday at Lake City High School. The girls will move on to state playoffs next week at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa, Idaho.</p>
COEUR d’ALENE — From the time they walked off the court at Post Falls High in 2015 after losing in the 5A Region 1 tournament second-place game, the goal was simple for the Lake City girls basketball team.
Finish what they started then in the 2016 season.
All the time and energy spent during the summer, as well as the fall, paid off in a big way on Tuesday night.
Nina Carlson scored nine points, hitting a pair of 3-pointers, as the top-seeded Timberwolves beat the second-seeded Post Falls Trojans 42-31 in the regional championship game, to advance to the state tournament for the first time since 2009.
“These girls, after we lost the last district game last year, our focus has been getting this done,” fourth-year Lake City coach Bryan Kelly said. “They put the time in during the summer and the fall. This is a very dedicated group and we’ve got a lot of different tools. I’m very proud of them. They never went away from the goal, which was to make it to state. When you’ve got those kind of people that want to be in the gym, it makes coaching that much easier.”
Bridget Rieken had seven points and nine rebounds, Lauren Rewers scored six points and Cierra Dvorak had six points and three assists for Lake City (19-4), which opens state against the loser of Friday’s District 3 title game between Mountain View and Centennial next Thursday at 5:15 p.m. PST at the Ford Idaho Center.
Post Falls (13-10) hosts Lewiston on Thursday at 7 p.m. in a loser-out game. That winner advances to a state 5A play-in game on Saturday at Grangeville High.
Lewiston beat Coeur d’Alene 49-35 in a loser-out game at Booth Hall.
Lake City won its first regional title since 2004.
Lake City led 19-18 at halftime, then held Post Falls to 13 second-half points.
“That’s kind of been our bugaboo and we have a hard time scoring sometimes,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said. “When you don’t score too many points, it’s tough to win.”
“Thought we were getting good shots in the first half, they just weren’t dropping for us,” Kelly said. “I just told them to keep attacking the basket. Keep attacking and put the defense on their heels. When we’ve played them as much as we have, and since Marc and I know each other so well (they coached together as assistants for the Post Falls High boys basketball team) — and that we’re good friends — and we know we can beat each other. But it’s tough to score against them. I thought we played well in the second half and knocked down some shots.”
Post Falls sophomore Melody Kempton had eight points and seven rebounds in the game. Kempton had 18 points and 20 rebounds in Friday’s opening round win against Lewiston in Post Falls.
“They know where we want to go with the ball,” Allert said. “Nina (Carlson) does a good job on her and she’s one of the few ones around that’s athletic enough to play her straight up. And they got lots of help on her, so they know what we’re all about and what we want to do. I think tonight they just played harder than us and outplayed us all the way around. Bryan and his kids, give them credit, they outplayed us all the way around.”
Dvorak banked in a 3-pointer to tie the game at 14 with 4:22 remaining in the first half, and Lake City only trailed once following a basket from Mackenzie Morris to make it 16-15.
“It feels like the happiest thing in my life,” Dvorak said. “I’ve got so much joy going through my body. I’m so proud of this team and all the work they’ve done. They’ve worked hard every day in practice to get to this point.”
Post Falls 9 9 5 8 — 31
Lake City 10 9 10 13 — 42
POST FALLS — Gardiner 0, Morris 5, Gennett 3, Brennan 5, Gleaves 0, McComb 2, Robinson 0, Kempton 8, Parks 0, Smith 0, Johnson 4, Ter Maaten 4.
LAKE CITY — Barber 0, Dvorak 6, Carlson 9, K. Maryon 2, Rieken 7, Vershum 0, Teets 0, Rewers 6, O. Maryon 2, Zufelt 0, Meier 4, Halliday 0, Simpson 6.
Lewiston 49, Coeur d’Alene 35: Freshman Kelly Horning had 20 points and 18 rebounds for the Vikings in a loss to the Bengals at Booth Hall.
Coeur d’Alene led at halftime and trailed 35-33 with four minutes remaining before being outscored 14-2 in the final moments.
“Kelly had a great game,” Coeur d’Alene coach Dale Poffenroth said. “We were up at halftime and tied after three quarters, but they hit a 3-pointer and kind of went into a stall and we couldn’t get the ball back.”
Coeur d’Alene finishes 8-15.
Lewiston (15-7) plays at Post Falls on Thursday.
No box score was available.