Taking direct route to state

POST FALLS — Grangeville hasn’t been kind to the Post Falls High girls basketball team in recent years.

A pair of losses in state 5A tournament play-in games will do that.

Fortunately, the Trojans won’t have to worry about that this year.

Junior point guard Bayley Brennan scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Trojans past the Lewiston Bengals 53-39 in the Region 1 championship game on Tuesday at The Arena, earning Post Falls a berth in the state tournament for the first time since 2013.

“I was more excited than nervous for tonight’s game,” Brennan said. “We’ve wanted this for a long time and we’re super excited.”

Post Falls (19-2) will open the state tournament against two-time defending champion Mountain View (20-4) of Meridian next Thursday at 12:15 p.m. PST at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa. Mountain View was the third-place finisher in the District 3 tournament. Lewiston (14-7) travels to Lake City (17-5) for the second-place game on Thursday. The Timberwolves outlasted Coeur d’Alene 45-42 in overtime in a loser-out game at Lake City High.

“We kind of overachieved a little bit from where I thought we’d be,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said. “But it doesn’t surprise me either. We talked about our goals at the beginning of the year, win the league title and regional title and knew we could do it. But it took some hard work, and the kids played well all year long. For being so young, the big thing was that we’ve been consistent.”

Post Falls advanced to the regional title game the past two seasons as well, losing at Lewiston in 2015 and at Lake City in 2016. The Trojans came up short in play-in games in both occasions.

“Her (Brennan) and Mel (fellow junior Melody Kempton) both have been through it the last couple of years,” Allert said. “All of us said we’re not going back to Grangeville. We’re not very good down there. Bayley was great tonight. She controlled things, and when we needed a basket, she got it. She’s done that for us all year long. She’s kind of our calming effect, and when the ball is in her hands, good things are going to happen. She was awesome tonight.”

Post Falls has won five straight games since losing at Lewiston on Jan. 13.

“Our goal at the beginning of the year was to play our best basketball, now (in the postseason),” Allert said. “We probably started better than I thought this season, and just continued to get better.”

Brennan scored 12 of her 20 points in the second half, six in both the third and fourth quarters with Kempton, a post, on the bench with three fouls in the third quarter.

“Bayley played absolutely amazing tonight,” said Kempton, who has verbally committed to Gonzaga. “I love her and I couldn’t be more proud of her. She was amazing tonight and it was kind of perfect timing.”

Macky Morris had 10 points and 10 rebounds and Kempton six points and nine rebounds for Post Falls.

“They outplayed us,” Lewiston coach Dave Cornelia said. “We just didn’t hit shots we’re capable of making. We cut the lead down to six a couple of times, but could never really get closer than that. At the end of the third, Melody got a third foul and they took her out of the game and they scored the final five points of the quarter and we’re down 11.”

Kendyll Kinzer scored 11 points for Lewiston (14-7), which plays at Lake City in a loser-out game on Thursday.

“Brennan did a good job the last time we played them,” Cornelia said. “Tonight, she made some 3s, some free throws and gave up some layups that we shouldn’t be giving up. We just fell asleep a few times defensively. We’ve hopefully going to take the hard road to get to the play-in game.”

Lewiston 9 9 10 11 — 39

Post Falls 14 12 13 14 — 53

LEWISTON — Randall 6, Ralstin 0, Cornelia 2, Roy 8, Kinzer 11, Genzer 0, Cady 7, Eke 0, Stoddard 5.

POST FALLS — Gleaves 0, Morris 10, Gardiner 3, Brennan 20, T. McCliment-Call 2, J. McCliment-Call 4, Robinson 5, Kempton 6, Parks 3.

Lake City 45, Coeur d’Alene 42, OT: Nina Carlson scored a game-high 15 points for the Timberwolves, who rallied from an 11-point deficit to beat the Vikings in a loser-out game.

“Coeur d’Alene came out playing extremely hard and were knocking down every shot they took,” Lake City coach Bryan Kelly said. “They were aggressive on defense and we couldn’t knock any shots down.”

Carlson scored to even the score at 38 with a minute left.

“Nina got a big offensive rebound and put it back in,” Kelly said. “We fouled them right away because we thought we were still behind, but they missed the free throw and we couldn’t get the last shot to go down. I thought we came out and executed in overtime and our girls kept battling.”

Lake City (17-5) will host Lewiston in a loser-out game on Thursday.

“It was a great win for us and we’ll see what happens on Thursday,” Kelly said. “I think we’ll be ready to come out and play four quarters and a complete game.”

Taryn Horvath scored nine points for Coeur d’Alene, which finishes 8-12 in coach Scott Stockwell’s first season as coach.

“I think Scott has done a great job with them this year,” Kelly said. “He’s doing the right things over there. I’m impressed with what he’s done and it was good to see.”

Coeur d’Alene 13 6 13 6 4 — 42

Lake City 12 5 8 13 7 — 45

COEUR d’ALENE — Minerath 7, Horvath 9, Fagan 8, Horning 7, Kane 2, Louden 6, Hollibaugh 3.

LAKE CITY — Barber 1, Carlson 15, Rieken 11, Teets 6, Rewers 5, Halliday 1, Simpson 6.