Ballew buries five 3s, scores 18 first-half points as Post Falls holds off Lake City

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

POST FALLS — Shooters shoot.

That's why Post Falls High senior Isaac Ballew, despite not a lot of recent success behind the arc, kept shooting Thursday night.

Good thing for the Trojans.

Ballew hit five 3-pointers and scored all of his career-high 18 points in the first half as Post Falls built a big lead, and needed every point of it in the second half to hold off the first-place Lake City Timberwolves 48-43 in an Inland Empire League boys basketball game before an estimated 900 fans at The Arena.

"I’ve been feeling good in practice, and I guess it finally happened in a game. Got set up, got good looks and they just fell today," the 6-foot-3 Ballew said. "Everybody tells me to keep shooting, so that helps keep me up, get some confidence going, get a couple to go in and then it goes from there."

Ballew opened the game by blocking a Lake City shot, then draining a 3-pointer for the game's first points. He hit three of his 3s in a 17-0 run in the second quarter that took Post Falls (10-4, 6-1 IEL) from one point down to 16 up. The Trojans led 33-18 at the break.

Ballew was scoreless in the teams' first meeting, a 54-43 Lake City win two weeks ago at home that marked the T-Wolves' first victory over Post Falls since 2014.

"Isaac had a great first half," Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. "He did a good job of kinda getting lost in the flow of our offense, and our guys did a really good job of finding him, and he shot it in the rhythm of the offense, without any hesitation. He had a phenomenal first half. There was a lot of attention drawn to some of those other guys, and Isaac took full advantage of it."

Lake City (10-5, 5-1) spent the second half pecking away at the Post Falls lead, holding the Trojans to five baskets and 15 points.

Jack Kiesbuy hit a 3, then scored on the drive to pull the Timberwolves within 40-36 with 3 1/2 minutes left.

Kolton Mitchell's two free throws brought Lake City within 44-43 with 34 seconds left.

Cole Rutherford of Post Falls was fouled on the inbounds pass, and hit both ends of a one-and-one with 32.4 seconds left. Lake City missed a 3 on its next possession, Rutherford rebounded, was fouled and sank two free throws with 10.6 seconds left to move Post Falls into first place, one-half game ahead of Lake City.

"We put ourselves in a hole in the second quarter, and in my mind it was solely rebounding," Lake City coach Jim Winger said. "We just stood straight up and down, jumping and trying to tip it, instead of bodying and get after it. And if you do that against Post Falls, you’re going to get really hurt, and we got really hurt."

Post Falls won despite relatively quiet nights from its top two scorers, Alex Horning (9 points) and Caden McLean (4). But James Lee hit a 3 and added seven points, and Zack Rodriguez and Josiah Shields each chipped in baskets to help the cause.

Zach Johnson scored eight of his 12 points in the first half to lead Lake City. Kiesbuy and Mitchell finished with nine points each.

"If you ask our guys, we won this game, but we didn’t play very well again, especially in that second half," McLean said. "They just got to the foul line too much."

"We played excellent in the second half," Winger said. "Obviously we didn’t win the game, but I’m very happy with the kids, and pleased with the effort. When you’re at Post Falls, and you’re down 15 at halftime and you get it to one in the fourth quarter, and we had a shot to tie it … certainly you’d like to come out of here with a win, but I have no complaints."

Lake City plays at Coeur d'Alene on Saturday at 3 p.m. in a rescheduled game slated for Jordan Court, as Viking Court is being used for a wrestling tournament. Post Falls plays host to Sandpoint on Tuesday.

Lake City 12 6 7 18 — 43

Post Falls 12 21 3 12 — 48

LAKE CITY — Buchanan 7, Janke 1, Irvin 5, J. Kiesbuy 9, Spellman 0, Johnson 12, Mitchell 9, Meredith 0.

POST FALLS — Anderson 0, McLean 4, Hauser 0, Rodriguez 2, Rutherford 6, Ballew 18, Lee 7, Horning 9, Shields 2.