Post Falls keeps state hopes alive

GIRLS

COEUR d’ALENE — Kennedy LaFountaine scored the go-ahead basket with 10 seconds left in overtime, and the third-seeded Post Falls Trojans beat the second-seeded Coeur d’Alene Vikings 41-40 in the second-place game of the 5A Region 1 girls basketball tournament Thursday night at Viking Court.

Post Falls (7-17) advances to play Meridian (13-12) on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Grangeville in a state play-in game.

Coeur d’Alene finished 7-12.

Skylar Burke hit a 3-pointer with just under 2 minutes left in OT to put Coeur d’Alene up by one. The Viks still led by one with some 15 seconds left when the Trojans missed a shot, rebounded and missed another shot. LaFountaine, a junior who moved into the starting lineup due to an injury to Sandi Faulkner, grabbed the ball underneath the basket, made a move and scored.

“She was awesome tonight,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said of LaFountaine, who scored all six of her points in the fourth quarter and overtime. “And she did a great job guarding Kelly (Horning, Coeur d’Alene’s 6-foot-1 senior post). She’s 5-8 and she battled her.”

Ali Carpenter scored nine of her 11 points in the first quarter for Post Falls. Allert also praised the play at both ends of the floor by Maya Blake, who added 10 points.

Burke led Coeur d’Alene with 10 points.

Post Falls lost to Meridian 47-33 at the TimberLion tournament over the holidays in Boise.

Post Falls 13 6 8 9 5 — 41

Coeur d’Alene 6 8 12 10 4 — 40

POST FALLS — Johnson 0, Blake 10, Gardiner 0, Gleaves 7, Smith 0, LaFountaine 6, Fleming 0, Lovett 7, Carpenter 11.

COEUR d’ALENE — Minerath 4, Brainard-Adams 9, Whiteman 1, Younker 6, Chavez 4, Horning 6, Burke 10.

Grangeville 43

St. Maries 41

GENESEE — The Bulldogs made two free throws in the closing seconds to break a tie, and punched their ticket to state by beating the Lumberjacks in Game 2 of a best-of-3 series for the 2A District 1-2 title.

St. Maries (12-10) lost all four meetings to Grangeville, but three of them were by nine points or less.

“We played them better than we played them all year,” St. Maries coach John Cordell said. “I could not be prouder of our girls; our girls stepped up and played so well.”

Madison Cordell had 11 points and 12 rebounds for St. Maries. Kaci Haeg added 10 points and nine boards, Jenna Holder five rebounds.

Grangeville (14-7), which won the series 2-0, advances to state Feb. 14-16 at Bishop Kelly High in Boise.

St. Maries had qualified for state each of the past two seasons.

St. Maries 11 10 8 12 — 41

Grangeville 15 5 7 16 — 43

ST. MARIES — Badgett 2, Suchoski 0, Crawford 0, Haeg 10, Cordell 11, Baird 0, Davenport 4, Holder 6, Rimel 0, Hammond 6, Miller 0, Koser 2.

GRANGEVILLE — Barder 9, Hill 4, Lindsley 6, Smith 0, Bashon 0, Lutes 6, Norman 6, DeFord 5, Roberts 0, Johnson 0, Vanderwall 2, Canaday 5.

Genesee 55

Wallace 29

POST FALLS — The Miners’ season ended at 6-12 with the loss to the Bulldogs in a 1A Division I District 1 play-in game at Post Falls Middle School.

Genesee advances to a state play-in game Saturday at McCall.

BOYS

Kootenai 61

Kendrick 28

HARRISON FLATS — Marcus Ausman scored 15 points to lead three Warriors into double figures in the nonleague win over the visiting Tigers.

Gage Maitland added 14 points, Jarrett Usdrowski 13 for Kootenai (11-6), which wraps up the regular season next Thursday at Wallace.

Kendrick 8 8 3 9 — 28

Kootenai 14 19 14 14 — 61

KENDRICK — Bruce 0, K. Anderson 2, Sneve 5, Boyer 9, Cannon 0, Hogan 2, M. Anderson 0, Newman 1, Alexander 7, Goldsberry 2.

KOOTENAI — Little 3, Maitland 14, J. Usdrowski 13, Vawter 5, Renner 2, T. Usdrowski 9, Ausman 15.

Mullan 40

Clark Fork 38

MULLAN — Luke Trogden scored 12 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter, including three free throws in the final 26 seconds, to lift the Tigers past the Wampus Cats in North Star League play at the Mullan Pavilion.

Clark Fork (1-12, 0-9 NSL) led 38-37 when Mullan (6-10, 2-7) forced a turnover and got the ball to Trogden, who was fouled on his way to the basket. He hit both ends of a one-and-one with 26 seconds left to put the Tigers in the lead. Mullan forced another turnover, Trogden was fouled again and sank one free throw with 13 seconds left. The Tigers’ defense then forced the Wampus Cats into a tough shot at the buzzer, which they missed.

“I can’t say about our effort tonight, it was unbelievable,” Mullan coach Paul Elston said. “We had to gut this one out tonight.”

Chandler Holling added 10 points for Mullan, which visits Wallace next Friday to close out the regular season.

Clark Fork 10 8 11 9 — 38

Mullan 7 9 9 15 — 40

CLARK FORK — Garcia 7, Reuter 0, Sutton 10, SanRoman 9, Constantin 12, Abbott 0.

MULLAN — L. Trogden 22, Holling 10, Hess 1, R. Trogden 7, King 0.