Lakeland out in 2 at state 4A tourney

BOISE — Lakeland’s girls basketball team did some great things this season.

Winning the 4A Inland Empire League and Region 1 titles, and advancing to state for the first time since 2009.

And playing two great halves of basketball at the state tournament to boot.

But as for those other two halves ...

Lakeland lost 51-35 to Hillcrest of Ammon in a loser-out game in the state 4A girls basketball tournament at Timberline High on Friday, ending the Hawks’ season at 10-13.

Lakeland, which went two-and-out at state, shot 1 for 19 from the field in the first half.

“I don’t know where the Hawks were in the first half,” said Lakeland coach Steve Seymour, who coached the Hawks to state 3A titles in 2001 and ’02 as part of his 24 seasons as head coach. “I’m old, but I remember what it was like to play on the second and third days. Sometimes, you don’t mean for it, but they come out in kind of a daze, and they’ve got to play their way out of it. It just took us too long to play out of it. We were going through personnel trying to find kids to compete, and those kids that competed last night, struggled to today. After a while, we were able to find a handful of kids. Instead of malaise, it was competition and the kids fed off that again.”

Senior guard Lauryn Cooper scored 10 points, hitting 3 of 5 from behind the 3-point line for Lakeland. Katy Ryan also scored 10 for the Hawks.

“It meant a lot to get down here, and I was proud of this team,” Cooper said. “We really came together this year, played like we knew how to play and worked hard for this.”

“They’re great kids that did a great thing winning districts,” Seymour said. “We were capable of winning this game, and I think we showed that in the second half. But we came out of the first half like that (trailing 30-7 at halftime). But we got some experience and had an opportunity to play. The seniors, I feel bad they’re not playing another day, but the underclassmen got some valuable minutes out there.”

Lakeland had won a combined 11 games over the past three seasons.

“This program has definitely gotten better progressively in the last few years,” Cooper said. “The games (at state) were a bit rough, and we started both games a little rough.

“They were just a fun group to be around,” Seymour said. “This group was interested in their teammates, and being together. There wasn’t a lot of drama or negative energy. It’s been a few years since we’ve had to deal with that. It was fun. Which makes it a little frustrating when you’ve got kids that like each other struggle and look like they’re running in quicksand.”

Maycee Stenquist scored 15 points for Hillcrest (14-11), which faces Blackfoot in the consolation championship game today.

Hillcrest 14 16 8 13 — 51

Lakeland 5 2 12 16 — 35

HILLCREST — Stenquist 15, Macfarlane 2, T. Larsen 3, Wood 6, Carlson 2, Sargent 8, Tueller 0, Parker 5, Denney 0, M. Larsen 5, Speirs 2, Cushing 0, Olsen 3, Weathermon 0. Totals 20-58 7-14 51.

LAKELAND — Boyer 0, Cooper 10, Kime 0, Cooley 0, McDevitt 0, Elpers 2, Loutzenhiser 4, Kirk 3, Ryan 10, Pruitt 4, Neff 2, Huddleston 0, Tingey 0. Totals 13-48 5-10 35.