5A REGION 1 BOYS BASKETBALL: Big game Trojans
<p>JAKE PARRISH/Press Post Falls' Max McCullough soars to the basket past Coeur d'Alene's Jakob Lynn at the 5A Region 1 second-place game on Thursday at Coeur d'Alene High School. Post Falls defeated Coeur d'Alene and will advance to the state playoffs next week in Nampa.</p>
<p>JAKE PARRISH/Press Post Falls' Jacob Pfennigs (15) battles for a rebound with Coeur d'Alene's Joey Naccarato at the 5A Region 1 second-place game on Thursday at Coeur d'Alene High School. Post Falls defeated Coeur d'Alene and will advance to the state playoffs next week in Nampa.</p>
McCullough pours in 36 as Post Falls beats Coeur d’Alene, earns spot in state play-in game
COEUR d’ALENE — Coeur d’Alene High came into the game with home-court advantage and two wins already this season over Post Falls on that floor.
The Trojans countered with some big-game experience. And it didn’t hurt to have Max McCullough as well.
McCullough poured in 36 points as Post Falls (16-8), the defending state champions, knocked off the Vikings 77-70 on Thursday night at Elmer Jordan Court in the 5A Region 1 second-place game, to earn a berth in a state play-in game Saturday at 3 p.m. at Grangeville vs. Capital (13-12) of Boise, the fifth-place finisher in District 3.
“Before the game I told them, ‘that’s a big game for Coeur d’Alene,’” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “It’s a big game for us too, but it’s not our first time in a big game. We played one in March against Highland not too long ago for a state championship; that was a pretty big game. And my five starters, they all played significant minutes in that game. And you can’t beat experience, and having been there before.”
McCullough, a 5-foot-11 senior guard, scored 20 points in the first half — all in the last 10 1/2 minutes of the half — as Post Falls scored 26 points in the second quarter to lead 34-29 at the half. He scored 10 in the fourth quarter, on two field goals and 6 of 8 from the free-throw line, to help the Trojans hold off the Vikings.
The Vikings had a hard time stopping him off the dribble.
“I was just trying to be aggressive,” McCullough said. “The last two games we got down by 20 early, so we had to make those comebacks. That’s what was working in the comebacks — I was getting to the rim ... I wanted to start that earlier this game, so we didn’t have to climb back.”
“Max is the best player in our league; there’s not a lot of guys like him,” McLean said. “Other teams have guys that take a lot of shots, and score a lot of their points, but Max is pretty efficient.”
McCullough was 13 of 17 from the field, including 1 for 3 from 3-point range, and 9 of 11 from the foul line.
“We knew coming in he was going to be a handful; he always is,” Coeur d’Alene coach Kurt Lundblad said. “Obviously he pretty much willed them to win tonight — just made a lot of incredible plays, and big-time shots. We tried a lot of different bodies on him, and we couldn’t seem to put the brakes on him.”
Wyatt Millsap added 15 points and Blake McLean and Joey Pfennigs added 10 points each for Post Falls, which withstood big games from juniors Brody Lundblad and Joey Naccarato of Coeur d’Alene (18-6). Lundblad hit six 3-pointers and finished with 28 points. He also had eight rebounds, two assists and two steals. Naccarato added 20 points.
In the first two games at Coeur d’Alene, the Vikings led by 21 and 20 points before winning tight games at the end. On Thursday night, Coeur d’Alene jumped out to a 9-2 lead, but Post Falls didn’t flinch. The Trojans took a 17-16 lead on McCullough’s 3-point play with 6 minutes left in the half, and though Coeur d’Alene pulled even on a few occasions, Post Falls never trailed the rest of the way.
“The absolute key to the game was, sometimes as a coach and as a program, you can’t be too prideful, you can’t be too smart for your own good,” McLean said. “In the two games we played over here and they beat us, we pressured the hell out of them, like we try to pressure everybody, and they just split us and got wide-open shots, and that got of their role guys to make some easy baskets. Sometimes the smartest thing to do is look yourself in the mirror and say, we need to make an adjustment. We need to get back, and we wanted them to out-execute us, and beat us in the half court. Because I was pretty confident we were going to execute, and it doesn’t hurt having a guy like Max with his hands on the ball a lot; he’s tough to guard.”
On Thursday night, neither team pressed until Coeur d’Alene went to a half-court trap in the fourth quarter in an attempt to speed up Post Falls.
The last tie was at 43 midway through the third quarter, then Post Falls finished the third quarter on a 12-2 run, capped by a pull-up jumper in the lane by McCullough in the final seconds.
Coeur d’Alene pulled within three points twice in the fourth quarter, the last time on Bryce Bronson’s putback with 4 1/2 minutes left.
But Pfennigs answered with a big 3 from the left wing, McCullough added a fast-break layup moments later, and Post Falls made 13 of 17 free throws over the final 3:41.
McCullough also had five rebounds and four steals, and Pfennigs had eight rebounds.
“Kudos to them; they made a few more plays than we did tonight,” said Lundblad, whose team has come oh-so-close to state, but fell short, in each of his three seasons as coach at his alma mater. “But it wasn’t for lack of effort; the kids gave everything they’ve got, every minute of every game this season. I could not be more proud of the 13 kids I have.”
Post Falls 8 26 21 22 — 77
Coeur d’Alene 12 17 16 25 — 70
POST FALLS — McLean 10, Millsap 15, McKeown 2, McCullough 36, Bourgard 2, Pfennigs 10, Hillman 2.
COEUR d’ALENE — Lee 0, Lundblad 28, Lynn 4, Matheson 7, Yankoff 0, Bronson 8, McElver 3, Naccarato 20, Kofmehl 0.