PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: Lake City, Post Falls advance to regional title game
The top-seeded Lake City Timberwolves fended off the No. 4 seed Coeur d’Alene Vikings 50-44, and the third-seeded Post Falls Trojans went on the road and beat the No. 2 Lewiston Bengals 58-45 in the first round of the 5A Region 1 boys basketball tournament Friday night.
Lake City (15-6) will play host to Post Falls (14-6) in the regional title game Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Coeur d’Alene (7-9) will travel to Lewiston (10-6) in a loser-out game Tuesday, also at 6:30.
Lake City 50
Coeur d’Alene 44
COEUR d’ALENE — The host Timberwolves trailed early and struggled at the free-throw line, hitting just 18 of 37, but had enough to fend off the Vikings for the third time in three meetings this season.
“I don’t think we could have played any worse in the first quarter,” Lake City coach Jim Winger said. “With that in mind, we were down only one.
“I don’t have an explanation for our free-throw shooting, and why we didn’t play free and easy. The key is to win and advance, and we did that, but we’ve got to go to work on Monday. Tonight was not one of our stellar efforts, and we still won.”
Jack Kiesbuy scored 11 points, Kolton Mitchell 10 for Lake City. Zach Johnson added nine points and 13 rebounds for the T-Wolves, and earned praise from Winger for his defense on Coeur d’Alene junior post Cameren Cope, who got into early foul trouble and finished with four points and nine rebounds.
“It was a good fight,” Coeur d’Alene coach Jon Adams said. “They got Cam into foul trouble early, but we hung in there. Defensively we were pretty sound; but they hit some shots late. We kept their main guys somewhat in check, but we couldn’t get Cam going.”
Steven Burgess hit 4 of 6 3-pointers and had 19 points, six rebounds and four assists for Coeur d’Alene, which was 4 of 7 from the line.
Coeur d’Alene 10 12 9 13 — 44
Lake City 9 16 14 11 — 50
COEUR d’ALENE — Bengtson 0, King 0, Prka 3, Burgess 19, Larson 6, Entzi 0, Cope 4, Smith 1, Reyes 3, McLaughlin 8.
LAKE CITY — Buchanan 5, Janke 5, Irvin 8, J. Kiesbuy 11, Spellman 2, Johnson 9, Mitchell 10.
Post Falls 58
Lewiston 45
LEWISTON — Cole Rutherford had 15 jpoints, seven rebounds, five assists, two steals and only one turnover as the Trojans avenged a home loss to the Bengals just last week on senior night.
“In the postseason, when you have a point guard with the ball in his hands as much as he does, that’s pretty dang good,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said.
Lewiston started in a box-and-one on guard Caden McLean, but got out of it after a quarter as Alex Horning hit two 3s and scored 10 points in the first quarter for Post Falls, and Rutherford also hit a 3.
“Our guys felt more confident in that position,” Mike McLean said. “Our guys did a good job not panicking, and playing with patience.”
James Lee had nine rebounds and two assists, and earned praise for his defense on Lewiston big man George Forsmann, who led the Bengals with 11 points. Jaxon Anderson chipped in seven points off the bench.
“It’s just a great win for us,” McLean said. “Very proud of our guys, to bounce back in a week — to be the favorite (in league) coming in, and lose at home on senior night.”
Post Falls 19 11 12 16 — 58
Lewiston 14 6 15 10 — 45
POST FALLS — Anderson 7, McLean 7, Hauser 0, Rodriguez 2, Rutherford 15, Ballew 6, Lee 3, Horning 16, Shields 2.
LEWISTON — Eke 5, McKarcher 9, Lang 10, Mullikin 4, Hottinger 0, Hepburn 4, Forsman 2, White 0, Goeckner 0, Forsmann 11.
Priest River 61
Kellogg 55
KELLOGG — Sophomore Blake Barrett scored 26 points and the Spartans survived a fourth-quarter comeback by the Wildcats to secure their first Intermountain League title since 2011 and the No. 1 seed to the 3A District 1-2 tournament next week.
Jace Yount added 10 points for Priest River (12-7, 4-1 IML), which will play host to No. 4 Timberlake (7-13, 2-4) on Monday at 6 p.m.
Priest River led by 18 points after three quarters, only to see Kellogg (9-7, 3-3) get it to a two-possession game with a minute to go before coming up short.
Kolby Luna scored 16 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter for the Wildcats, including all three of his 3-pointers. He also finished with 11 rebounds. Riply Luna also scored 20 for Kellogg, which had made a habit of coming back from huge deficits in recent league games.
“We finally found a time where the hole we did ourselves got the best of us,” Kellogg coach Mike Martin said.
Barrett hit three 3s, two in the second quarter when he scored 10 points.
“Big kudos to Priest River; Kevin (Wylie) is doing a great job with those guys,” Martin said. “Whenever we made a run, they stretched it back out.”
Priest River plays host to Bonners Ferry (7-7, 2-3) tonight in the regular season finale. If Priest River wins, Kellogg will host Bonners on Monday at 6. If the Badgers win, a coin flip will determine which team hosts on Monday.
Priest River 10 17 18 16 — 61
Kellogg 11 7 9 28 — 55
PRIEST RIVER — Mathews 8, Butler 3, J. Nortz 5, Kreager 5, Marinello 4, Barrett 26, D. Nortz 0, Thompson 0, Yount 10.
KELLOGG — Miller 0, R. Whatcott 0, R. Luna 20, K. Luna 20, Groves 5, Frohlich 0, Walker 3, Jerome 7, Lonn 0.