Minerath finds the mark when Viks need it

COEUR d’ALENE — In her third year as a varsity starter, Coeur d’Alene High’s Emily Minerath had her senior moment in Friday’s 5A Region 1 girls basketball opening round game.

Coeur d’Alene clinging to a 43-40 advantage in the fourth quarter, Minerath got a open look, stepped back ...

Then bagged it.

Minerath’s 3-pointer with 3:13 remaining pushed the lead to six points for the Vikings in a 55-40 win over the Post Falls Trojans at Viking Court.

“Honestly, we’ve ran through the play so much in practice, it felt comfortable to me,” Minerath said. “So when I caught the ball and shot it, I knew I had it in the bag. I just had to go back to the basics and be ready to shoot like our coach always tell us.”

Coeur d’Alene, the tournament’s second seed, held third-seeded Post Falls scoreless over the final 3:43 of the game. The teams split their two meetings in 5A Inland Empire League play.

“We just wanted to switch our defense up,” Coeur d’Alene coach Scott Stockwell said. “We kept switching between man and zone, and I think that threw them off a little bit. Ultimately, it’s a do-or-die situation, and that’s what we’ve been coaching all week. We wanted to win this ballgame, and they did it.”

Minerath and Emma Whiteman had 10 points each for Coeur d’Alene.

Coeur d’Alene (7-10) travels to Lake City (19-3) in the regional title game on Tuesday night. Post Falls (5-17) hosts Lewiston (9-12) in a loser-out game on Tuesday. Both games are at 6:30 p.m.

Kelly Horning scored 11 of her game-high 15 points in the first half for Coeur d’Alene. Post Falls was held to three points in the first quarter, but rallied to cut the deficit to 28-23 at halftime.

“Defensively, I thought we did some good things and got some turnovers,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said. “We struggled to guard Kelly early on, but thought we did an good job at times with that, but could have blocked out better. It was the self-inflicted wounds on the offensive end. We had some opportunities we didn’t take advantage of.”

“She’s a force to be reckoned with down there,” said Stockwell of Horning, who scored six of her team’s first 11 points. “She’s very strong. We get her out in some pick and rolls, and when she rolls, she’s tough. As long as we can get her the ball, she’s pretty tough down low.”

Coeur d’Alene lost at Lake City 43-37 on Jan. 25; Lake City won the Fight for the Fish game 59-39 at Cd’A two weeks earlier.

“It’s a hometown rivalry,” Stockwell said. “Lake City has been the team to beat for the last couple of years, and our girls are ready for the challenge. We played them pretty tough in the last game, so hopefully we can get our shots falling and give them a good game.”

Post Falls knocked off Lewiston 64-63 at the buzzer in Tuesday’s regular season finale to split the season series with the Bengals.

“We just played Lewiston a few days ago, so we know what’s happening there,” Allert said. “We talked about not beating ourselves at this point. We’ve got to forget about this one, and move on to the next game.”

Ali Carpenter scored eight points for Post Falls.

Post Falls 3 20 14 3 — 40

Coeur d’Alene 11 17 14 13 — 55

POST FALLS — Johnson 4, Blake 4, Gardiner 0, Gleaves 3, Smith 6, LaFountaine 2, Fleming 6, Faulkner 2, Lovett 5, Carpenter 8.

COEUR d’ALENE — Minerath 10, Brainard-Adams 3, Whiteman 10, Matheson 0, Younker 5, Chavez 6, Horning 15, Kane 2, Munoz 0, Burke 4.