Coeur d'Alene boys rally for signature win over Lakeland

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

RATHDRUM — Just two games into his tenure as Coeur d'Alene High boys basketball coach, Jon Adams has a signature win at his alma mater.

Junior Cameren Cope scored eight of his 18 points in the fourth quarter and the Vikings rallied from 12 points down in the second half to surprise the Lakeland Hawks, 53-50, in the Inland Empire League opener for both teams Thursday night at Hawk Court.

"Our team just really came together; it was all about hustling at the end of the game there," said Cope, who also had 10 rebounds. "We were running a full-court press the entire game, and we just tired them out. That’s what it came down to — defense and hustle."

Senior Owen Smith added seven of his 10 points in the fourth quarter, and also had seven boards for Coeur d'Alene (2-0, 1-0 IEL), which used hustle and steady pressure to make up for a poor shooting night — at least through the first three quarters.

"Since I got here, and since the guys started open gym, we said, we know what our personnel is and we’re going to play one style of play — we’re going to play up-tempo, and we’re going to play aggressive, we’re going to play full-court," Adams said. "We’re going to dictate the tempo, and we’re going to make you play at the pace we play at. With the hopes of, making some defensive plays, getting some turnover and transition points out of that, and winning in the third and fourth quarter. We’ve probably said that 100 times in the last two months — we’re going to win games in the third and fourth quarter."

Lakeland (2-2, 0-1) played without high-scoring sixth man Jalen Skalskiy, out with an injury. But the Hawks boosted their lead to 40-28 late in the third quarter before the Vikings chipped away in the fourth.

Lakeland's last points came with 3 minutes left, when Bryce Henry's putback increased the Hawks' lead to 50-44.

Lakeland then lost two starters to fouls in less than a minute. Ammon Munyer fouled out with 2:31 left and was also hit with a technical, and Coeur d'Alene sank 3 of 4 free throws to pull within 50-49.

Cope sank two free throws with 2:01 left to put the Vikings ahead 51-50 — their first lead since the first two minutes of the game.

Moments later, Cope drew a charge from Noah Haaland, who led all scorers with 19 points. It was his fifth foul.

Smith's two free throws with 25.2 seconds left made it 53-50 Lakeland.

Brayden Bengtson of Coeur d'Alene forced a five-second call with 11.5 seconds left. The Vikings missed a pair of free throws with 6.2 second left, but a 3-pointer by Lakeland at the buzzer was off the mark.

"Very disappointing," Lakeland coach Dave Stockwell said. "I’m disappointed in things that we did down the stretch, that guys with that much experience should know not to do (like shooting 3s with no rebounders, and committing silly fouls). "We stopped playing as a team.

Coeur d’Alene, give them a lot of credit, they kept coming and coming and coming. You give a team like that a little bit of rope, and they’ll hang you with it."

Coeur d'Alene was 10 of 36 from the field, and 8 of 16 from the line through three quarters. But the Vikings were 6 of 10 from the field, 10 of 14 from the line in the fourth.

Bengtson had six rebounds, three assists and two steals for the Vikings.

"I cannot tell you how proud I am of those guys, for getting them to buy in on this is how we do things going forward," Adams said. "This is something they needed to get for themselves — this is what winning’s like, this is what the work we put in gets us. This is the reward. They’re pretty excited, which makes me excited."

Lakeland was 19 of 60 from the floor for the game, including 3 of 18 from 3-point range.

Coeur d'Alene travels to Lewiston on Tuesday.

Lakeland's next game, at home Wednesday vs. Kellogg, was canceled due to COVID. The Hawks will now return to action Dec. 19 at Lewiston.

Coeur d’Alene 7 14 10 22 — 53

Lakeland 13 16 11 10 — 50

COEUR d’ALENE — Bengtson 3, King 3, Prka 2, Larson 9, Ivankovich 0, Entzi 4, Cope 18, Smith 10, Reyes 0, McLaughlin 4.

LAKELAND — Hocking 2, Seay 2, Henry 10, Ab. Munyer 0, Am. Munyer 8, Haaland 19, Roth 7, Waddington 2.