5A REGION 1 GIRLS BASKETBALL: A fine line late for Vikings

COEUR d’ALENE — It’s a scenario that Coeur d’Alene High girls basketball coach Nicole Symons has seen her daughter — Madi — in plenty of times.

Even as she admits, Nicole tries not to watch.

Symons, a sophomore, scored the final six points for the Vikings from the free-throw line, sealing a 55-49 win over the Lake City Timberwolves in the championship game of the 5A Region 1 tournament at Viking Court on Tuesday.

“I’ve been working on those a long time,” Madi Symons said. “So I’m glad I got the opportunity to shoot those.”

Coeur d’Alene (18-1), which claimed its second straight regional title, advances to the state 5A tournament starting next Thursday.

“It means a lot,” Symons said. “We’ve put in a lot of work during the offseason and a lot of work in during the season. But we’re not done yet, we’ve got a lot of work to go.”

“I’ve seen her in situations where she’s had to do that,” Coeur d’Alene coach Nicole Symons said. “And there’s nobody else that I’d rather have at the line. She’s one of our biggest competitors and she wants to win. She’s mentally tough. I don’t watch them. I don’t watch her serve the volleyball and I don’t want her to shoot those foul shots at the end.”

Madi Symons finished with 24 points, 13 rebounds and six assists for Coeur d’Alene (18-1).

Brooklyn Rewers scored 15 points for Lake City (13-6), which hosts Post Falls in a loser-out game on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Post Falls beat Lewiston 49-38 in a loser-out game on Tuesday.

“She had a big task tonight,” Nicole Symons said of Madi Symons. “She had to guard Brooklyn, and she played great tonight and really ran the floor. It’s a really big task for her to guard her.”

Lake City took an early lead before Coeur d’Alene battled back to take a 10-5 lead. Lake City regained the lead on a layup by Hailey Jo Parks early in the fourth quarter at 40-39.

“They came out and wanted this win,” Nicole Symons said. “And we weren’t matching their intensity for a large portion of the game. I think we were kind of shocked by that, but (Lake City coach James) Anderson had them ready to play tonight. They played hard.”

Coeur d’Alene will play either defending champion Mountain View (16-2) of Meridian or Boise (9-3) in the opening game at state. Those teams will play in the District 3 championship on Friday at Eagle High. Coeur d’Alene will face the loser.

“From us watching, the teams down south don’t seem to get up and press,” Nicole Symons said. “But they play really tough in the half court, and we’re going to have to be better against the zone. Lake City’s zone was tough, and we’ve got to be able to handle that a little better at state.”

Skylar Burke totaled 20 points, six rebounds, four steals and a blocked shot for Coeur d’Alene.

“We knew they were going to come out fighting,” Burke said. “We’ve both been working for this game all year, and knew they weren’t going to go down easy. We just had to dig deep and push through.”

Tanai Jenkins scored eight points for Lake City, in its fourth straight regional title game, and which last won the regional title in 2019.

“We can be a real problem to score against with that (taller) lineup,” Anderson said. “I thought we had a long stretch in the third and fourth quarter where they struggled to score baskets and we were able to get them out of what they wanted to do, and that was the goal — if we can get in the right cycle and keep them from doing what they wanted to do.”

“I just loved how our kids fought,” Anderson said. “I thought they played really hard. We came focused and ready to go. We wanted to make an impression early in the game and did a good job of letting them know that we’re here to fight and get after it.”

Lake City 14 11 14 10 — 49

Coeur d’Alene 15 18 7 15 — 55

LAKE CITY — Pickford 5, Miller 6, Zufelt 10, Shanley 0, Rewers 15, Jenkins 8, Parks 2, Hawkins 3.

COEUR d’ALENE — Brainard-Adams 5, Whiteman 0, Symons 24, Johnson 1, Younker 5, Chavez 0, Burke 20.

Post Falls 49, Lewiston 30: Dylan Lovett scored 15 points for the Trojans in a win over the Bengals in a loser-out game at The Arena.

Americus Crane had 10 points, four steals and three assists for Post Falls (12-7), which travels to Lake City for the regional second-place game on Thursday.

“Americus did a good job off the bench for us tonight,” Post Falls coach Marc Allert said. “Dylan scored our first seven of the night, then scored eight straight after Lewiston tied it at 28-28. She just didn’t want it to be her last game. We weren’t in really good rhythm tonight, but we executed and ran some stuff better in the second half. Lewiston played hard, and they never gave up and kept working and making things difficult for us.”

Katy Wessels scored 12 points for Lewiston, which finishes 3-14.

Lewiston 4 11 14 9 — 38

Post Falls 9 15 10 15 — 49

LEWISTON — Collins 8, U’Ren 0, Hill 2, Bursch 0, Wessels 12, Barney 6, Ortiz 5, Kessinger 5, McRoberts 0.

POST FALLS — McLean 2, Nichols 1, Lovett 15, Grant 0, Sims 11, Buckley 1, Crane 10, Magnuson 2, Walton 0, Blake 3, Christensen 4.