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Lake City boys beat Post Falls for first time since 2014

| January 16, 2021 1:30 AM

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

COEUR d'ALENE — Lake City High senior Jack Kiesbuy was determined to do whatever it took to beat Post Falls for the first time in his four-year varsity career.

Even if that meant shadowing the Trojans' top scorer all over the court.

Kiesbuy scored five of his 10 points in a 13-0 first-quarter run that put Lake City in control, and the Timberwolves kept Post Falls at arm's length the rest of the way, snapping an 18-game losing streak to the Trojans with a 54-43 Inland Empire League boys basketball victory Friday night at Lake City.

"It’s great; we had a great game plan going into it — execute our stuff, and rebound the ball," Kiesbuy said. He added the win meant "a little bit" more because of who it came against, "but if we play the way we play, I think we can beat them any time.”

Lake City (8-4, 3-0 IEL), which normally starts four sophomores, beat Post Falls (7-4, 3-1) for the first time since 2014 — the last time Lake City won a regional title.

Post Falls has won or shared the last six 5A IEL titles since then, and won four of the last six regional titles.

"What I liked is, we obviously played very well, but they made three runs at us when we were up, and we answered every one of them," Lake City coach Jim Winger said. "The two trips down south (to Middleton and eastern Idaho), we got a little bit of a bloody nose, we didn’t handle the end of some games very well. We got a little limp in our giddy-up, but the key thing is we learned from it.

"We have some really good players, and if they play like that, and they buy into what we’re doing, especially defensively, you’re going to get good results. But, I know we’re going to see them a few more times."

Kolton Mitchell led Lake City with 21 points, including 13 of 18 from the free-throw line. Blake Buchanan, a sophomore who got the OK to play after suffering a wrist injury last week, came off the bench Friday and added seven points.

Caden McLean hit five 3-pointers and scored 22 points for Post Falls. But other than him, the other Trojans were 1 of 16 from deep, and no one else scored more than six points.

"Lake City executed defensively very well. They did a good job taking away some easy scoring opportunities," Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. "They’re younger than us (Post Falls starts five seniors), but they’re an experienced bunch of sophomores, and I thought they played with more maturity — we’d make a run and it seemed they were able to get back on track quicker. They’d make runs on us, it took us a little bit to get back."

Lake City took it to Post Falls early, scoring 13 straight points after the Trojans scored the opening basket.

Varick Meredith also tallied five points during that run, including a 3-points off a feed from Kiesbuy for a 13-2 lead, as the T-Wolves continually attacked the basket.

Post Falls pulled within four points in the second quarter, before Lake City stretched the lead to 29-20 at halftime.

Post Falls pulled within two twice in the second half, the second time on McLean's 3 with 6 minutes to play.

But Mitchell answered with a driving layin, then got another jumper to bounce on the rim and in, and Post Falls managed just five points the rest of the way.

"We’ve been coming out of the gate pretty good all year," Winger said. "We’re long, and we can really guard. It was a great team defensive effort I thought Zach (Johnson) and Jack in particular, on (Alex) Horning and McLean, did a great job. Jack’s long, and hard to deal with, and to his credit, it takes a lot out of him, because he’s handling one of their best players every night. But he’s taken ownership of it, and done a great job."

Johnson, a sophomore, held Horning to four points.

"I think there’s only a handful of teams in the state that could win a state title, and two of them played (here) tonight," Mike McLean said. "We’ve been doing this a long time; there’s no panic. This is 5A big-boy basketball. Sometimes you get beat, and you have to go back to work and get better."

On Tuesday, Post Falls plays host to Lakeland, and Lake City is home vs. Lewiston.

Post Falls 7 13 13 10 — 43

Lake City 17 12 9 16 — 54

POST FALLS — Anderson 2, McLean 22, Rodriguez 0, Peterson 3, Rutherford 6, Ballew 0, Sciortino 0, Lee 6, Horning 4.

LAKE CITY — Buchanan 7, Janke 2, Irvin 2, J. Kiesbuy 10, Spellman 0, Johnson 6, Mitchell 21, Meredith 6.

photo

MARK NELKE/Press Zach Johnson of Lake City challenges a shot by Caden McLean of Post Falls, and Ben Janke (3) of Lake City defends Friday night.