THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Lake City boys looking to make the most of every game

Tournament championship games, games against one-win teams ...

They're all approached the same by this year's Lake City High boys basketball team.

"One thing about these guys — I don’t have to do a lot of rah-rah," Lake City coach Jim Winger said Tuesday night, after the Timberwolves improved to 7-0 with a 66-34 victory that dropped visiting Shadle Park of Spokane to 1-5.

"They’re fired up — sometimes too much — in the locker room, and coming out to play," he added. "They’ve even said it; they’ve got 21 of these (games), and they want to take advantage of every one of them."

LAKE CITY was missing two of its top six players for its first three games.

Then Zach Johnson, a junior post and third-year starter, returned from an ankle injury on Dec. 9, a 72-46 win at Moscow.

Last weekend, junior Deacon Kiesbuy made his season debut in Lake City's three games at the Owhyee Holiday Invitational in Meridian. And on Tuesday, he scored a season-high 10 points in the T-Wolves' win over the Highlanders.

Last Saturday, Johnson had 22 points and nine rebounds as Lake City went off for 50 second-half points in a 78-65 victory over Pocatello in the title game.

"Deacon gives us another scorer; he can shoot the ball," Winger said. "And Zach, in my mind, is the ‘X-factor.’ But you throw (6-6) Nathan (Hocking) and (6-11) Blake (Buchanan) and (6-3) Zach, that’s some pretty tough matchups. Zach’s probably the best athlete in the school, certainly the strongest athlete, and he can run. So yeah, he’s a big factor. Huge."

THE T-WOLVES return to the Boise area again next week, and figure to face even tougher competition than they did last week, when they beat some pretty good foes in Burley, Timberline of Boise and Pocatello.

Lake City will play at Meridian (3-2) on Tuesday in a rematch of last year's state 5A title game, won by the Warriors 68-54.

The Timberwolves will then play at 5A Eagle (5-1) on Wednesday and at 4A Bishop Kelly (5-1) of Boise on Thursday.

On Tuesday, Eagle beat Owyhee (3-2), a first-year bolstered by transfers, and the favorite to win the 5A Southern Idaho Conference, in four overtimes.

"I’m really looking forward to going down there next week because Meridian is playing really well — they knocked off Eagle the other night and Eagle’s supposed to be real good," Winger said. "And then BK is BK; they run a lot of zone, which is what we want to see."

One reason North Idaho teams like to hit the road for games and tournaments is to see tough competition elsewhere in the state or region.

Another reason is to get used to traveling and playing, because state basketball is always in the Boise area.

State is three games in three days, this year March 3-5 at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa for the 5As.

Last week, Lake City played three games in three days in Meridian. Next week, the T-Wolves will play three games in three days, all in the Boise area.

"We’re going to do everything exactly as we did (last week)," Winger said. "We’re leaving at the same time, practicing at the same time, eating at the same time, our team meetings are at the same time. I want it to be a routine to the minute, and hopefully if we get there in March, it’ll be the third time we’ve done this routine."

ATTENDANCE AT Tuesday's Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise, which saw Wyoming defeat Kent State 52-38 in an entertaining tilt on a sunny, chilly afternoon: 10,217.

That's the second-lowest attendance in the 25-year history of the Boise bowl, which was previously called the Humanitarian Bowl and the MPC Computers Bowl.

Of course, the lowest attendance was last year, when fans weren't allowed into Albertsons Stadium because of COVID-19.

Before that, the lowest attendance was two seasons ago, when 13,611 watched Ohio beat Nevada 30-21 on Jan. 3, 2020.

This bowl was created in 1997 with Boise State in mind, and the Broncos played in four of the first nine games.

Not surprisingly, the top three crowds for Boise's bowl game were for games involving Boise State — 30,446 in 2002, when BSU beat Iowa State 34-16; 30,112 in 2005, when the Broncos lost to Boston College 27-21; and 29,500 in 1999, when BSU beat Louisville 34-31.

Boise State hasn't played in Boise's bowl since 2005.

In the three times Idaho played in the bowl game, the best crowd the Vandals drew was 26,726 in 2009, when Idaho went for two and beat Bowling Green 43-42. That was the ninth-largest crowd in the bowl's history.

In 2016, Idaho beat Colorado State 61-50 before 24,975, the 13th-largest crowd in the bowl's history. In 1998, just the second year of the bowl game, Idaho beat Southern Miss 42-35 before 19,667, which is only the 17th-best crowd in the bowl's history.

The crowd for Idaho's win over CSU was the game's biggest since 2012, when 29,243 watched Utah State beat Toledo 41-15.

Prior to the fan-less 2020 game, the three previous Boise bowls drew just 16,512, 18,711 and 13,611.

You'd think a certain number of people in the Boise area would want to show up just to say they were at a game where the winning coach got French fries, rather than the traditional Gatorade, dumped on him as the clock wound down.

Maybe they should try mashed potatoes and gravy next time. Or actual potatoes.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.