PREP BASKETBALL: Coeur d'Alene girls turn up heat on Sandpoint

• GIRLS

SANDPOINT — The Coeur d'Alene Vikings forced 25 turnovers in a 55-29 victory over the Sandpoint Bulldogs in Inland Empire League play Saturday at Les Rogers Court.

Coeur d'Alene (12-1) set the tone early with its press and rode that momentum the rest of the way to improve to 8-0 in IEL play.

"Coeur d'Alene did a really good job of flying around," Sandpoint coach Will Love said about the Vikings' press. "That's why they are ranked third in the state (in the coaches’ poll) ... It's tough to simulate something like that in practice. We've been pressed this year, but not at that level, not at a 5A state tournament level. so it definitely got us a little bit flustered."

Coeur d'Alene coach Nicole Symons said her team fed off its play on defense.

"We take great pride in it," she said. "We spend most of our practices focusing on defense because for me I just love defense and I think it drives teams, it drives the energy."

Both teams took the court on Saturday with little rest. The Vikings beat rival Lake City the day before while Sandpoint was fresh off a big win at Moscow on the same night and didn't get back home until after midnight.

Sandpoint (5-5, 2-3 IEL) got off to a fast start. Senior guard Kaylee Banks received the ball, attacked the Coeur d'Alene defense and finished a layup to get the Bulldogs on the board within the first 10 seconds. On the next possession, her younger sister, Karlie Banks, buried a 3-pointer to give SHS a 5-0 lead.

But after that, the Bulldogs got ice cold and missed eight straight shots the rest of the first quarter. This allowed the Vikings to go on a 16-0 run. Sandpoint didn't score again until two minutes into the second quarter.

Coeur d'Alene forced 16 first-half turnovers to take a 25-13 advantage into halftime.

To combat fatigue, Symons was constantly subbing in players to get fresh legs on the court, and it worked.

"We're really deep," she said. "We have a lot of girls that can come in and play good minutes and I knew in the second half we'd just keep rolling."

The Vikings did just that and outscored SHS 30-16 in the second half to end the Bulldogs' three-game winning streak.

Symons said she saw great effort from her team.

"Our girls, they will run through a brick wall," she said. "We got girls diving to save balls out of bounds when we are up 30 with 20 seconds left. They never quit and they work so hard for each other, and it's fun to be part of it with them."

Coeur d'Alene used a balanced attack to down Sandpoint. Jaelyn Brainard-Adams, Emma Whiteman and Skylar Burke all scored 12 points. Burke also had six rebounds and three steals. Tori Younker finished with 9 points and Madi Symons added 10 rebounds.

Karlie Banks led Sandpoint with 9 points, and Kaylee Banks had 8.

Despite the loss, Love said his team never stopped battling.

"I was really proud of the kids because today was tough," he said. "It was a tough turnaround with an emotional win [Friday] and a long bus ride so the kids were competing, we just got rushed and we couldn't get settled down."

On Tuesday, Coeur d’Alene plays host to Lewiston, and Sandpoint is home vs. Lake City.

Coeur d'Alene 14 11 11 19 — 55

Sandpoint 5 8 7 9 — 29

COEUR d'ALENE — Mitchell 3, Matheson 2, Brainard-Adams 12, Whiteman 12, Symons 1, Ja. Johnson 2, Je. Johnson 0, Younker 9, Chavez 2, Phenicie 0, Burke 12, Naccarato 0.

SANDPOINT — Gammon 0, Driggs 3, Reinink 0, Lyons 0, Tomco 0, Cessna 3, Phillips 2, Kar. Banks 9, Larson 1, Platte 3, Kay. Banks 8.

St. Maries 51

Kellogg 39

KELLOGG — No other information was available.

• BOYS

St. Maries 55

Kellogg 29

KELLOGG — Sophomore Greyson Sands hit two 3-pointers and scored 18 points, and the visiting Lumberjacks jumped out to a 30-12 halftime lead en route to the win over the Wildcats in what was to be the boys Brawl 4 the Ball spirit game at Andrews Gymnasium.

Coleman Ross added 10 points for St. Maries (7-0), which forced Kellogg (2-3) into 24 turnovers.

“They play super hard; their energy really got to us, and we played too passive,” Kellogg coach Mike Martin said. “They’re good; it’s a pretty special group they’ve got over there. The effort they brought took us out of what we were trying to do. They get after it in the half-court; we handled their full-court pressure pretty well, but they got us on second chances, and on the glass.”

Kolby Luna hit three 3-pointers and scored 11 points for Kellogg, playing for just the second time since Dec. 5. K.J. Walker hit two 3s and added 10 points.

“I really was proud of our guys for continuing to compete in the second half; it would have been easy to roll over,” Martin said.

St. Maries plays host to Timberlake on Monday.

Kellogg gets another shot at St. Maries on Thursday on the Lumberjacks’ home court.

St. Maries 15 15 18 7 — 55

Kellogg 4 8 10 7 — 29

ST. MARIES — Sands 18, Ross 10, Becktel 2, Gentry 7, Stancil 6, Elliott 0, Gibson 4, Ledbetter 0, Renner 6, McMaster 2.

KELLOGG — R. Luna 2, K. Luna 11, McLean 0, Groves 2, Frohlich 1, Walker 10, Jerome 3, Lonn 0, Hoffman 0.

Timberlake 51

N.I. Christian 45

SPIRIT LAKE — Zach Yetter scored 18 points for the host Tigers, who held off the Royals in nonleague play despite a 22-point effort from Malachi Bullington.

“We did what we could,” Timberlake coach Mike Menti said. “At first, we weren’t shooting that well. Bullington, he’s a true 7-footer, but he had to work for his points. Overall, I was really happy with our defense and it was a nice team effort. We communicated really well and had some great leadership on the floor. We’re a young team, but if we can continue to do that, it’s going to go a long way for us.”

Hunter Higgins scored 12 points for Timberlake (2-5), which travels to Wallace on Tuesday.

Morgan O’Brien scored nine points for North Idaho Christian (13-5), which faces Christian Center on Friday at The Courts at Real Life in Post Falls.

N.I. Christian 10 12 10 13 — 45

Timberlake 9 15 10 17 — 51

NORTH IDAHO CHRISTIAN — Pilgrim 3, Smith 0, McKee 5, O’Brien 9, Bryan 0, Johnson 6, Bullington 22.

TIMBERLAKE — Riley 12, Tay. Menti 4, J. Yetter 0, Paslay 2, Z. Yetter 18, Millsap 2, Higgins 13, Tan. Menti 0, Swenson 0.