Memories of smoke ... and hoops

Some things that jumped out from the recently completed school/sports season:

FOR THE second time in three years, poor air quality in the region again affected the high school sports schedule.

Instead of checking schedulestar.com for schedule updates, fans (and administrators) were becoming familiar with airnow.gov, which listed the latest Air Quality Index in the area — if the number was too high, games and practices were canceled.

There was a lot of Plan B or Plan C or Plan D for that week’s high school football games. Some games were still in doubt up to an hour before the (re-)scheduled kickoff.

In the end, most games ended up still being played — many of them pushed back a day, some in the afternoon instead of the evening. One was rescheduled for later in the season, one was moved to the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, one was canceled altogether.

I was at University High to watch Post Falls improve to 3-0 with a come-from-behind victory over the Titans. It was an impressive outing for the Trojans, who went on to win their first eight games of the season — scoring a ton of points along the way.

THIS ONE won’t make Coeur d’Alene High football fans happy, but it was still an impressive performance, albeit by the other team.

The Vikings’ high-octane offense rolled into Holt Arena in Pocatello for the state 5A championship game against the hometown Highland Rams.

In an era where high school football scores often resemble arena football scores, this one featured a tremendous defensive effort, especially by Highland, which shut down Coeur d’Alene in a 14-8 win.

Not often do you see a defensive tackle dominate a football game — at any level — but the Rams’ Tommy Togiai did. The future Ohio State signee disrupted the Coeur d’Alene running game and passing game.

Still, the Vikings were capable of scoring points in bunches. And once Coeur d’Alene did get on the board, on a touchdown run by quarterback Colson Yankoff, you had the feeling that would trigger a flood of more scores by the Vikings.

But it never happened — because of Togiai and the Highland defense.

THIS NEXT one came courtesy of the internet — watching the North Idaho College men’s basketball team play its second-round game at the Northwest Athletic Conference tournament on a Sunday night in March in Everett, Wash.

Host Everett Community College couldn’t stop NIC freshman point guard RayQuan Evans — but then again, hardly anybody else in that conference could.

Evans finished with 47 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with less than one minute remaining in the second overtime, to lift the Cardinals to a 112-110 victory.

NIC nearly had it wrapped up in the first overtime, leading by seven points. The Cards still led by four with 17 seconds left, but Everett came back to force a second overtime.

Evans’ wingman on this night was Aushanti Potts-Woods, who added 25 points, including a putback with .3 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.

The following weekend, NIC won two more games to win the conference tourney — coming back from 20 points down with 17 minutes left to beat Peninsula 90-83 in overtime.

SELDOM DOES a regular-season game generate as much buzz as Gonzaga Prep’s visit to Post Falls for high school boys and girls basketball games in early December.

At least on the boys side, it featured the teams ranked No. 1 in their respective states’ highest classification.

Unfortunately for Post Falls, the night turned into the Anton Watson show.

Watson, a former Coeur d’Alene resident and now a junior at Gonzaga Prep, dominated with 28 points, 12 rebounds, three steals, two assists, one blocked shot and a handful of highlight-reel dunks as the Bullpups posted a convincing 68-51 victory over the Trojans.

There was an electricity in the building normally reserved for key 5A Inland Empire League games.

Gonzaga Prep went on to win the Washington state 4A championship.

In defeat, the game served as somewhat of a wakeup call for Post Falls. The Trojans went on to win the 5A IEL and the Region 1 title, and advanced to the state semifinals before losing, then lost in the state third-place game.

There wasn’t as much buzz the following week — though there probably should have been — when Post Falls’ girls traveled to Central Valley in a similar matchup of top teams in their respective stats. Post Falls gave CV perhaps its toughest test of the season, leading for much of the first half before falling 59-48.

CV went on to complete an undefeated season, capped by two victories at a four-team national-level tournament in New York.

Post Falls traveled to Las Vegas a week later and went 3-1 vs. some high-quality foes, and the Trojans went on to win their first state title since 2013.

We need more regular-season matchups like those.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.