Lakeland beats Sandpoint to advance in 4A regional

RATHDRUM — Senior point guard Ben Zubaly plays many roles on the Lakeland Hawks high school boys basketball team.

On Monday night, he played the role of the answerer.

The 5-foot-10 Zubaly scored a career-high 29 points, 21 in the second half, and seemingly had an answer for every Sandpoint challenge as the second-seeded Hawks defeated the third-seeded Bulldogs 79-67 in a loser-out first-round game of the 4A Region 1 tournament at Hawk Court.

“He’s awful strong,” Lakeland coach Dave Stockwell said of Zubaly. “There’s no doubt about it; we ask a lot from him, and this year he’s delivering. He’s making good decisions, and scoring when we need it. To me, that’s what a point guard does — he facilitates, he plays good defense, and when you need points, he can get ’em for you.”

Lakeland (17-4) travels to top-seeded Moscow (13-8) on Wednesday at 6 p.m. for Game 1 of a best-of-3 series for the region’s lone berth to state. Game 2 is Friday and Game 3, if necessary, is Saturday. All games will be played in Moscow.

Sandpoint finished 10-12.

For his part, Zubaly deflected the credit — much like he did several Sandpoint passes that were part of the Bulldogs’ 24 turnovers.

“Just a coincidence,” Zubaly said. “We just look for the open play, wherever it’s at, whoever has the shot, whoever gets the board ... it’s not determined. We just let the game come to us.”

Junior Ammon Munyer scored nine of his 17 points in the first quarter for Lakeland. Junior Noah Haaland added 12 points, six rebounds and three steals, and sophomore Abe Munyer — Ammon’s brother — had six points, seven rebounds and four steals.

Kobe Banks, one of four senior starters for the Bulldogs, sank four 3-pointers and led Sandpoint with 18 points. He also had eight assists, seven rebounds and four steals.

Ryan Roos added 13 points, and reserves Jacob Eldridge and Will Treadaway both scored 10 points.

Ammon Munyer scored Lakeland’s first seven points, the Hawks jumped out to a 9-2 lead after 2½ minutes, and kept the Bulldogs at arm’s length the rest of the way.

Sandpoint pulled within 23-20 midway through the second quarter on the second of Banks’ three 3s of the quarter. But Lakeland, which hurt Sandpoint on the offensive boards all night, finished with a 10-4 run which included a pair of putbacks, and led 33-24 at the half.

In the third quarter, seemingly every time Sandpoint scored to put a little heat on the Hawks — be it a deep 3 from Banks, a putback by freshman Colin Roos or baskets by Banks and Treadaway — Lakeland’s Zubaly answered.

He answered Banks’ 3 with a 3 of his own seconds later, responded two more times with hoops after Sandpoint baskets, then drilled a 3 at the end of the third quarter to send the Hawks into the fourth with a 53-41 lead.

In the fourth quarter, after Banks fed Eldridge for a basket to cut Lakeland’s lead to 66-59 with 3 minutes left, the Hawks came down and missed a 3. But Zubaly — of course! — knifed in and corralled the loose-ball rebound, and moments later scored on a drive, and that was about it.

“I think he’s probably the MVP of the league,” Sandpoint coach Wade Engelson said of Zubaly. “They’ve got a bunch of good players, but Zubaly hurt us inside, he hurt us outside. He made big shots; when we made runs, he went down and orchestrated either good shots by his teammates, or a good shot for himself. He’s done that all year long for them.”

Lakeland played mostly zone on Monday night — more than the Hawks have played all season — in part to take away Sandpoint’s high pick and roll, and partly to keep its bigs out of foul trouble. The Hawks forced eight Sandpoint turnovers in the first quarter, and 14 in the half.

“It came down to turnovers,” said Engelson. “And Lakeland’s good. And you can’t give a team close to 30 extra possessions, particularly Lakeland. We were turning it over fast enough where it was hard to keep up (with the count).”

Since Moscow went undefeated in the 4A Inland Empire League, the Bears get to host all three games — even though their four wins (two over Sandpoint, two over Lakeland) came by just a combined 18 points.

Lakeland lost by three points at Moscow, and by five to the Bears at home.

Stockwell said his team’s confidence level is “really high.”

“Getting beat by them twice, I don’t think in their hearts they really felt they should have,” he said. “I think it’s about time we put it together. I think the game Wednesday is going to be the key. For us, if we get a win on Wednesday, I feel our chances are pretty good on Friday.”

Sandpoint 9 15 17 26 — 67

Lakeland 16 17 20 26 — 79

SANDPOINT — R. Roos 13, Banks 18, Niemela 2, Eldridge 10, VanDenBerg 0, Lee 0, C. Roos 5, Treadaway 10, Casey 9.

LAKELAND — Zubaly 29, Seay 6, Henry 7, Ab. Munyer 6, Am. Munyer 17, Haaland 12, Roth 0, Waddington 0, Saasen 2.