Hope for Hawks again in girls hoops

The last time Lakeland High qualified for the state girls basketball tournament, this year’s seniors would have been in the second grade.

The year was 2009, the end of a long, successful run at state that started when the Hawks were in 3A, and continued for a few seasons when Lakeland moved up to 4A in 2004.

The Hawks made 10 straight trips to state from 2000-09, including back-to-back state 3A titles in 2001 and ’02.

Since then, there’s been some lean years — just one winning season since ’09.

When Lakeland’s girls defeated Moscow at home last Thursday, not only did it snap a 24-game losing streak in 4A Inland Empire League that stretched clear back to late in the 2012 season, it gave the Hawks hope that perhaps there were good things to come.

“These kids are aware of more than I realize,” said Steve Seymour, in his 24th season as Lakeland coach. “Sometimes you get teams that don’t seem to know about the league or history. We don’t try to put a lot of expectations on what happened in the past, but they’re trying their best to write a new chapter.”

Obviously, there’s still more work to do before that new chapter covers a trip to state.

Sandpoint, too, beat Moscow — on Saturday in Sandpoint. Lakeland and Sandpoint are 1-0 and tied for first in the 4A IEL, and they square off Friday at Rathdrum for the league lead, amid the spirit madness known as Battle for the Paddle.

Lakeland still has to travel to Moscow on Jan. 24, and to Sandpoint five days later.

And then there’s the 4A Region 1 tournament, where only one of the three teams advances to state.

But at least last Thursday’s victory was a step in the right direction.

IN 5A IEL girls basketball, preseason favorite Lake City is closing in on the league title, and getting a little better each time out. The Timberwolves have won 12 straight games.

“I thought, and I told the kids in our very first meeting of the year, because we have so many multisport athletes that aren’t necessarily always around a basketball, that we had a chance to improve as the season went on more than any team in the state,” second-year Lake City head coach James Anderson said. “And our score progression, and the way we’re playing on film, and live, it feels like we’ve consistently progressed, and I really like the direction it’s headed.”

Lake City is ranked No. 2 in 5A by the state’s media. One of Lake City’s losses was 51-24 at top-ranked Mountain View of Meridian. But that was a long time ago — Nov. 17, the T-Wolves’ third game of the season.

With bigs Brooklyn Rewers, Bridget Rieken and Sara Muehlhausen, Lake City can dominate inside. But the Timberwolves can also shoot it from the outside, led by Aubrey Avery. And the T-Wolves have the athleticism to use defense to create offense.

“We’ve gotten out to first-quarter leads most of the year,” Anderson said. “Our press seems to get to people in the first quarter, and then they kinda figure it out, and then it’s not quite as effective as the game goes on, but I feel like it wears people down over the course of a game, so we kinda stick with it. Luckily we have the depth to do that.”

WHILE THE 5A Region 1 champion advances directly to state, the second-place team at regionals can still advance to state by winning a play-in game against the fifth-place finisher from District 3.

So, though Lake City has won its four league games so far by an average of 27.25 points, the other three teams know there is another route to state — if they can’t bump off the T-Wolves at regionals.

Coeur d’Alene, which entered the season not having won a league game since the 2014 season, has three league wins already this season — at home over Lewiston and Post Falls, as well as Tuesday at Lewiston.

“It builds our confidence,” third-year Coeur d’Alene head coach Scott Stockwell said. “When we win basketball games, it builds our confidence, and it’s going to carry over game to game.”

Coeur d’Alene’s game vs. Lake City last week in the Fight for the Fish was actually for first place in the 5A IEL girls standings, as both teams came in with 2-0 records. Coeur d’Alene still has road games at Post Falls and Lake City prior to regionals.

“We’re growing as a team,” Stockwell said after last Friday’s 59-39 loss to Lake City — the closest any league team has come to the T-Wolves so far. “We’re still very young. We’re teaching these girls how to play basketball — seeing the floor and reading defenses.”

“My motto is, every game leading up to districts is a practice. So as long as we can learn from this, and then correct these mistakes, and be playing our best basketball at the end of the season, we’ll be doing well.”

“They’re a good team,” Anderson said of Coeur d’Alene. “They shoot the ball well enough, and have enough size that they can give us problems.”

Post Falls, despite its 3-16 record, had Coeur d’Alene beat last week before the Vikings won on a 3 at the buzzer. The Trojans also played Lewiston tough down in Lewiston, so they figure to be in the hunt for at least a berth in the state play-in game.

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.