Post Falls girls romp to 5A IEL title
POST FALLS — You hope sometimes as a coach by the end of the regular season that your team starts playing with some confidence, whether that be from the seniors to the underclassmen.
In the case of the Post Falls girls basketball team, it was a freshman on Thursday night.
Freshman Tyler McCliment-Call scored 17 points, including 3 of 4 from beyond the 3-point line, as the Trojans routed the Coeur d’Alene Vikings 74-34 in the 5A Inland Empire League finale for both at The Arena.
“She’s got a lot of confidence right now,” said Post Falls coach Marc Allert of McCliment-Call, who scored eight of her 17 points in the first quarter. “She’s playing well and starting to figure things out. She has no fear. Both her and her (twin) sister — Jacksen — they might be freshmen, but they play with no fear.”
Melody Kempton had 16 points and 10 rebounds for Post Falls (16-2, 5-1 5A IEL), which also wrapped up its first league title since the 2012-13 season.
“For us, it’s big,” Allert said. “The big thing for us, and everybody, is that we don’t want to go to Lewiston to play. We play pretty well here, shoot the ball well here, and it’s nice to play in front of our home crowd. That’s a nice extra bonus.”
Post Falls jumped out to an 18-5 lead midway through the first quarter. A 19-0 run starting the second half put the game away.
“I would have liked us to come out a little more aggressive,” said Coeur d’Alene coach Scott Stockwell, whose team nearly upended Post Falls before falling 46-44 at home on Jan. 10. “We came too flat, and got into a quick hole and we couldn’t really bounce back from that. And it seemed like they made about every shot tonight.”
Post Falls hit eight 3-pointers, led by Briana Robinson and Tyler McCliment-Call with three each.
“We’ve got some kids that can hit some shots,” Allert said. “Bri came in and hit some 3s and they came from different kids, which was nice to see. I thought our kids that came off the bench came in and did a really good job. Defensively, we kind of got on a roll for a little bit and hit some baskets. First half, I don’t think we converted, but did a lot better job in the second half.”
Coeur d’Alene (7-10, 0-6) will be the No. 4 seed and open the Region 1 tournament at Post Falls next Friday night.
“If we would have won, we still would have played Post Falls, and we would have played them had we lost,” Stockwell said. “That’s what we’re going to get prepared for next week. And hopefully, we’ll give them a little better game.”
Rey Louden scored 12 points for Coeur d’Alene, which hosts Lakeland on Wednesday.
Coeur d’Alene 8 13 3 10 — 34
Post Falls 20 16 23 15 — 74
COEUR d’ALENE — Minerath 2, Morton 0, Horvath 3, Seymour 0, Jacobson 0, Fagan 5, Horning 6, Kane 4, Louden 12, Hollibaugh 2.
POST FALLS — Gleaves 2, Morris 2, Gardiner 2, Brennan 9, T. McCliment-Call 17, J. McCliment-Call 5, Robinson 11, Kempton 16, Parks 9.