Stuff of champions
LOREN BENOIT/Press Colby Gennett of Post Falls dunks against Coeur d’Alene in the 5A Region 1 championship game Tuesday night at Post Falls.
Post Falls guard David Bourgard drives to the basket against Coeur d’Alene in the 5A Region 1 Championship game Tuesday night at Post Falls High. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
POST FALLS — With Coeur d’Alene concentrating early on shutting down Post Falls’ “Big 3,” it was up to somebody else to pick up the scoring slack until the Trojans could get their offense cranked up.
On Tuesday night, that somebody was David Bourgard.
Bourgard, a 6-foot-2 senior guard, scored 10 of his 18 points in the first quarter to keep Post Falls afloat, then the Trojans turned up the juice and routed the Coeur d’Alene Vikings 56-31 in the championship game of the 5A Region 1 tournament Tuesday night at The Arena.
“It’s not the first time we’ve seen a team do that,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “They cheat to our two scorers, and maybe Colby (Gennett). So you’ve got to choose your poison. David came in, confident ... I always say a good shot is a good shot, and a bad shot is a bad shot. Every one of the shots that he made was a good shot. Even if it doesn’t go in, I’m OK with that shot.”
Post Falls (18-5), which won its first regional title since 2015, advances to the state tournament next weekend at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa. The Trojans will open against Centennial (11-14), the fourth-place team from District 3, next Thursday at 5:15 p.m. PST
Coeur d’Alene (12-10) will play host to Lake City (12-11) on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in loser-out game; the winner advances to a state play-in game Saturday in Grangeville. Lake City destroyed Lewiston (9-13) 70-37 in a loser-out game Tuesday night in Lewiston.
Bourgard opened the scoring with a putback, then hit a 3-pointer. He scored again on a drive through the lane. Coeur d’Alene led by as much as five points in the quarter, but Bourgard took a feed from Casey Walker and sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer to pull the Trojans within 15-13 after one.
“Our coach always says a good shot is a good shot, no matter if it goes in or not,” Bourgard said. “And I just had faith in my teammates for getting me the ball tonight. It gave me a lot of confidence.”
Post Falls looked to push the pace off rebounds in the second quarter, and broke the game open with a 12-0 run. Colby Gennett’s 3-pointer from just inside the midcourt logo at the halftime buzzer boosted the Trojans’ lead to 30-19 at intermission.
Gennett’s breakaway dunk was part of a 10-2 run to open the third quarter, making it 40-22. The Trojans then got a little sloppy and Coeur d’Alene rattled off six quick points, four by Kale Edwards, who led the Vikings with 11 points. McLean called timeout to, uh, regain his team’s focus.
Post Falls responded by scoring the first eight points of the fourth quarter — four by Matt Fleming, four by Bourgard. The Vikings managed just three free throws in the fourth quarter.
“When we get out and push it, before the defense can get set, we are very good in the open court,” McLean said. “Any time we get a stop, we’re looking to get a quick score before they can set up.
“Maybe an inexperienced team would have gotten nervous (in the second quarter), because the shots weren’t falling,” McLean added. “We just had to rely on our defense, and buckle down.”
Jake Pfennings, Post Falls’ leading scorer who is fourth on the school’s all-time scoring list, was held to 3 points on 1-of-10 shooting. But he dominated in other ways, with 10 rebounds, five steals and three blocked shots.
But, as the Trojans will need at state, others helped pick up the scoring slack, including Fleming, who hit his first four shots and finished with eight points, to go along with five rebounds and a couple of assists.
“Our goal was to not let their main three get going,” Coeur d’Alene coach Tony Hanna said. “And we did a good job of that in the first quarter, and I know Bourgard had 10, but to be honest with you, we were OK with that ... but it’s hard to contain all three of them for the whole game.”
Post Falls, just 5 of 14 from the floor in the first quarter, was 17 of 36 the rest of the way. Gennett scored all 14 of his points in the final three quarters. Bourgard also had six rebounds.
“We didn’t score very well tonight,” McLean said. “We didn’t shoot it very well. One thing we really try to pride ourselves on, over the last 11 years, is we take a lot of pride in our defense. We like to run, and play with a purpose, and go fast, but defensively is something our kids hang their hats on. I thought tonight was a perfect example of, maybe our main guys didn’t have it going right off the bat, but our guys coming off the bench found a way. The important part is, you hold a team to 31 points, you’ve got a chance.”
Coeur d’Alene made just 6 of 33 shots in the final three quarters.
“Our whole goal was to try to stay with them as long as we could,” Hanna said. “Unfortunately they hit two buzzer-beaters, with hands in their face, and that hurts us a little bit.”
Coeur d’Alene 15 4 9 3 — 31
Post Falls 13 17 10 16 — 56
COEUR d’ALENE — Kile 0, Delbridge 0, Leifer 0, Whittaker 0, Matheson 10, Friesz 2, Margo 0, Beggerly 6, Hostettler 2, Johnson 0, Dunteman 0, Bloom 0, Edwards 11.
POST FALLS — Gennett 14, Buer 0, McCliment-Call 9, Walker 0, Bourgard 18, Fleming 8, Ballew 4, Pfennigs 3, Morris 0.