Lake City opens against two tough foes

Coming off a consolation championship last year, the Lake City High girls basketball team is not exactly easing into this season.

The Timberwolves open tonight at 7:30 at home vs. Boise, which lost in the third-place game at state last year. On Saturday, Lake City welcomes Mountain View of Meridian, last year’s state runner-up.

Boise features Peyton McFarland, a 6-foot-4 forward who has signed with Utah. Lake City won 57-51 at Boise last season, but McFarland did not play in that game. The T-Wolves lost 51-24 at Mountain View the following afternoon, but lost just two more games after that prior to state.

“It’s good for us to play a hard schedule,” third-year Lake City coach James Anderson said. “It’ll expose a lot of things we need to get better at, regardless of results.”

Other area girls basketball teams open their seasons soon.

On Saturday, Timberlake plays at Lakeland at 6 p.m., and St. Maries plays host to Bonners Ferry at 4:30.

In Tuesday openers, Post Falls is at home vs. Timberlake, and Lakeside plays host to Troy.

Kootenai debuts Wednesday at home vs. the St. Maries junior varsity.

Coeur d’Alene’s opener is next Thursday at Lakeland.

Genesis Prep’s opener is Dec. 3 at Northwest Christian in Colbert, Wash.

Here are quick looks at each of the area’s girls basketball teams. They will be covered further in The Press’ annual winter sports special section, scheduled for inclusion in the Dec. 5 paper.

5A

Lake City: The Timberwolves lost four senior starters, including three all-5A Inland Empire League selections (Dejah Wilson, Klaire Mitchell and Bridget Rieken) from last year’s 21-4 squad.

But Lake City returns junior post Brooklyn Rewers, the league’s co-player of the year last year.

“Most of what we do is going to revolve around her ability to score in the paint,” Anderson said.

Also back are senior guard Aubrey Avery, junior post Brenna Hawkins and sophomore point guard Kendall Pickford.

“We’re going to be more balanced than people realize,” Anderson said.

Coeur d’Alene: Nicole Symons, the Vikings’ assistant coach the past two seasons, takes over as head coach for Scott Stockwell, who resigned after three seasons.

Coeur d’Alene lost just one starter from last year’s 7-12 squad — post Kelly Horning, an all-league selection.

But the Vikings return six players who started at one time or another last season — junior guards Tori Younker, Jaden Chavez, Jaelyn Brainard-Adams, Emma Whiteman and Nakisha Matheson, and sophomore guard Skylar Burke.

“We’re going to be small, but we’re going to be fast,” said Symons, who played on a pair of state title teams in her three years at Coeur d’Alene High, then won a state title as a senior at Lake City when that school opened in 1994. “We’re pretty deep; they really are buying into being a tough defensive team.”

Post Falls: Aside from Rewers, Trojans junior guard Dylan Lovett is the other returning all-league player.

“Last year Dylan did a little bit of everything for us,” said Marc Allert, beginning his ninth season as Trojans’ coach.

Post Falls went 7-18 last year, but made it all the way to a state play-in game before seeing its season end.

Senior guard Kennedy LaFountaine, junior guard/post Maya Blake, and senior guard Katie Fleming are among the other returnees to a team that will be, shall we say, challenged heightwise.

“We’re going to be hard to scout,” Allert said. “We’ll have to get up and pressure people, try to outwork people.”

4A

Lakeland: The Hawks lost four of their top six players from last year’s 10-13 team that made it to state for the first time since 2008.

But Lakeland returns the reigning 4A Inland Empire League Player of the Year in junior post Katy Ryan, as well as senior guard Mel Loutzenhiser.

And Steve Seymour, back for his 25th season as Hawks’ coach, said he has some other players capable of stepping up and filling the shoes of the departed players.

The 6-4 Ryan, a verbal commit to play volleyball at Washington State, controls the inside with her rebounding and her shot blocking.

“They understand that we can’t ignore Katy, but we can’t do it on Katy’s shoulders alone to get there,” Seymour said.

3A

Timberlake: The Tigers return a pair of all-Intermountain League players in junior forward Brooke Jessen, the league MVP, and junior point guard Taryn Soumas, who set single-game and tournament records for 3-pointers made last year at state.

Junior forward Bernie Carhart and junior guard Olivia Hammond both started some last year for Timberlake, which went 22-3 last year and finished third at state for the second straight year.

Timberlake coach Matt Miller is also hopeful that junior post Blayre Jeffs, who was slowed by an ankle injury last year, will be closer to 100 percent this season.

“I think we’ll have a really good balance, inside and out,” said Miller, beginning his 15th season as Tigers’ coach. “If Brooke and Blayre are able to both play, it’ll be one of the biggest teams I’ve ever had.”

The Tigers open with five games in 11 days, all against larger schools in 5A Post Falls, Lewiston and Coeur d’Alene, and 4A Lakeland and Sandpoint.

2A

St. Maries: Kim O’Connor, the Lumberjacks’ junior varsity coach last season, moves up to replace principal John Cordell, who was the head coach last year.

St. Maries lost all-Central Idaho League selections Madison Cordell and Kaci Haeg from last year’s 12-10 squad. Junior guard Mackenzie Hammond and junior guard/post Jenna Holder are returning starters.

O’Connor played basketball at NCAA Division II Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, W.Va., and has also coached middle school, JV and varsity teams in Wyoming and Maryland.

“I learned a lot from John and the senior players that graduated last year,” O’Connor said. “I really appreciate the opportunity to coach the girls this year. With so many new players it has been a smooth transition and the returning players have great attitudes — they are willing to accept changes and also contribute what they feel has worked in the past.”

1A Division II

Genesis Prep: Gone are forward Bella Murekatete (Washington State) and guard Rachel Schroeder (Lewis-Clark State), who led the Jaguars to three trophies at state — third in 2017, second in ’18 and the consolation title last season.

The Jaguars have no returning starters from last year’s 14-11 squad, and only two back who played significant varsity minutes last year in senior guards Yunji Kim and Esther Nies.

“This group of girls is pretty fun. It’s a whole new team; we’re starting from scratch,” said third-year coach Brandon Haas, who said he’s borrowing from the philosophy of his high school coach at Post Falls, Dave Stockwell, who liked to refer to the regular season as a 20-game preseason. “If we can learn from everything we get out of this season, and go into the postseason strong ... ”

Kootenai: Guard Tayva Maitland, the Warriors’ lone all-North Star League player from last year as a freshman, transferred to St. Maries.

But four other starters return from last year’s senior-less 1-14 squad — senior post Jacey Grange, senior post/wing Amanda Wine, and sophomore wings Abigail Tiller and Sarah Thaut.

“We’re bringing back some good experience,” said Doug Napierala, in his fourth year in his second stint as Kootenai girls coach. “We were able to compete better down the stretch (last year). We didn’t get too many victories, but we were competitive down the stretch.”

Lakeside: The Knights lost seven seniors from last year’s 9-10 squad, including three all-league players in Tommia Pakootas, Alyssa SiJohn and Suzanna Pakootas.

Senior post Samantha Adrian is a returning starter for Lakeside. Senior guard Tamara Anderson was a part-time starter after suffering a torn ACL the season before. Sophomore guard Jolissa Holt, her sister, sophomore Ashlee Holt and junior guard Kria Peters all saw significant minutes last year.

“I think there’s some new roles that have to be filled,” said Chris Dohrman, in his sixth season as Lakeside girls coach. “We lost quite a bit of scoring, but we have quite a few girls that will be able to step up and score.”