5A REGION 1 GIRLS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: A fresh move to state ... Post Falls juggles lineup, finds way past top-seeded Lake City

COEUR d’ALENE — With the season on the line, sometimes a coach digs deep into their bag of tricks to give an opponent something they haven’t seen yet.

So when Post Falls coach Marc Allert opted to start 5-foot-10 freshman Capri Sims over senior Kennedy LaFountaine — a 5-8 post — it was trying to play a matchup in order to keep the season going.

Eventually, it worked.

Sims finished with six points, but made her biggest impact on defense as the third-seeded Trojans earned a trip to state by upsetting the top-seeded Lake City Timberwolves 45-40 in the 5A Region 1 girls basketball second-place game Saturday afternoon at Lake City High.

“We brought Capri up with two games left in the season for this reason,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said. “We figured she’d be our best chance to guard against Brooklyn (Rewers). Kennedy does a great job, but doesn’t quite have the size to do it. We thought putting a little more size on Rewers could help.”

Senior Laney Smith scored a team-high 10 points for Post Falls (13-10), which faces Timberline (21-3) of Boise on Thursday at 7 p.m. PST in the opening round of the state tournament at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.

Rewers, a junior, finished with 22 points for Lake City, which finishes 15-8. The T-Wolves lost at home for the second time in four days; they fell to second-seeded Coeur d’Alene on Wednesday night in the regional title game.

“I thought Brooklyn, and all of our kids battled their hearts out,” Lake City coach James Anderson said. “They stepped up, and did everything they could have, but just came up a little bit short.”

Junior Jaya Miller added seven points for Lake City, which played shorthanded with one starter gone and sophomore point guard Kendall Pickford slowed by a calf injury suffered in the Timberwolves’ regional opener on Feb. 7.

“I thought Jaya and Madi (Chase) were fantastic today,” Anderson said. “We’ve been encouraging others to step up, and with Kendall being pretty limited with injuries, we kind of had to go by committee to get the ball up the floor. And that hurt us. But the kids that did that played their tails off for us and did their best.”

Rewers scored on a layup to give Lake City a 40-38 lead with 4:40 remaining. Post Falls marched down the court and tied the game on a layup by Ali Carpenter. After a couple of possessions, Post Falls took the lead for good on a free throw by Dylan Lovett at 41-40 with two minutes remaining, and sophomore Alexis Heath added a pair of free throws to make it 43-40. Sims came up with a big steal and was fouled with 37.9 seconds remaining.

“We’ve been building to this all year, but this isn’t possible unless Kennedy — a senior — gives up her starting spot to a freshman,” Allert said. “She understands what’s going on and what’s best for the team, so this is on her. I couldn’t be prouder of the sacrifice she made for this team.”

Post Falls senior Katie Fleming iced the game with 3.7 seconds left with a pair of free throws.

Post Falls lost to Lake City by 13 and 6 points during 5A Inland Empire League play.

“We were not going to let this be our last game,” Fleming said. “We knew we were going to have to come in and work our butts off today. Whether it’s good or bad, we worked as hard as we could. We had a rough beginning of the season, but I thought we wanted this a little more.”

“We kind of wanted to wear them down, and keep the pressure on them,” Allert said. “They came into the game a little banged up and played an emotional game against Coeur d’Alene the other day (Wednesday), so I thought we could wear them down. And I thought we did that. It wasn’t the prettiest game by any means, but the girls made plays when they needed to. They just kind of willed themselves.”

Post Falls 14 8 16 7 — 45

Lake City 18 10 8 4 — 40

POST FALLS — Heath 6, Blake 3, Lovett 6, Johnson 0, Fleming 8, Smith 10, LaFountaine 0, Sims 6, Walton 0, Carpenter 2, Christensen 2.

LAKE CITY — Pickford 3, Avery 3, Miller 7, Chase 3, Parks 0, Shanley 0, Rewers 22, Munoz 2.