Lakeland boys race past Moscow
JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Bryce Henry of Lakeland goes strong to the basket as Bryden Brown (1) of Moscow defends on Saturday in Rathdrum.
JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Noah Haaland (15) of Lakeland dunks as Barrett Abendroth (5) and Bryden Brown (1) of Moscow challenge on Saturday at Hawk Court.
By MARK NELKE
Sports writer
RATHDRUM — A couple weeks ago, Lakeland High boys basketball coach Dave Stockwell made a change to the starting lineup.
Junior Bryce Henry, who was coming off the bench, was inserted at point guard, moving senior Carson Seay off the ball.
The move has helped the high-flying Hawks play even faster — if that was possible.
Henry had 19 points, three steals, four rebounds and a pair off assists, and Seay hit four 3-pointers and added 18 points and Lakeland broke away late in the first half to beat the Moscow Bears 77-65 in 4A Inland Empire League play Saturday afternoon at Hawk Court.
"The game’s faster when he plays," Stockwell said of Henry. "And then we can get Carson in the corners for what he does best, which is shooting. … I think it’s going to be real good for us down the stretch."
Noah Haaland added 19 points, eight rebounds and three assists, and had one of three dunks for Lakeland (8-7, 3-0 5A IEL), in the first meeting between the two teams since last year's best-of-3 battle for the Region 1 title, eventually won by Moscow.
Haaland missed Wednesday's loss at Coeur d'Alene due to illness. Junior Abe Munyer, who was starting, injured his right knee last week vs. Lake City, and the Hawks are awaiting results of an MRI.
Jalen Skalskiy finished with 13 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Senior Benny Kitchel scored a game-high 24 points for Moscow (4-7, 1-1), playing for the first time in three weeks because of COVID issues in the program. Junior Bryden Brown added 14 points, hitting three of his four 3s in the fourth quarter.
Moscow coach Josh Uhrig said slowing down Lakeland's transition game was "easier said than done, right? Those guys can fly; their transition game might be as good a transition game as there is. And it helps when you have 6-8 and 6-8 (Haaland and Skalskiy) getting rebounds, those other guys can leak out. It’s hard to compete with that. And with their size, they move really well."
Lakeland played zone against Moscow, and the Bears took 32 3s out of their 54 field-goal attempts, going 10 of 32 from deep, 22 of 54 overall.
"I think that’s good for us," Stockwell said of the zone. "We’re pretty long, and we’ve had a tendency to get into foul trouble, so … they run a real good motion offense, and we just felt if we keep the ball in front of us, we’d have a better shot. At first, it didn’t look like a good decision, but it ended up being a good one.
"We’re a lot better when we run. And the zone helps us there too, because we’ve got the bigs inside (to rebound)."
Moscow led 22-16 midway through the second quarter. But Lakeland finished the half on a 13-0 run, with Henry contributing a three-point play followed by a 3-pointer, and Seay adding a 3 for a 29-22 Hawks halftime lead.
Seay had 13 of his points in the second half as Lakeland led by as much as 16. Moscow came no closer than eight points in the fourth quarter.
Lakeland shot 54% (27 of 50) from the field.
The teams meet again Thursday in Moscow, and the Bears should have three more players, including one starter, back from COVID quarantine.
Before that, Lakeland plays host to Post Falls on Tuesday.
Moscow 15 7 16 27 — 65
Lakeland 12 17 23 25 — 77
MOSCOW — Brown 14, Simpson 4, Abendroth 10, Kees 0, Rehder 5, Kitchel 24, Skinner 8.
LAKELAND — Hocking 0, Seay 18, Henry 19, Am. Munyer 8, Haaland 19, Roth 0, Waddington 0, Skalskiy 13.
