Thursday, March 28, 2024
46.0°F

State 1A Division I boys basketball tournament: Lakeside's Lucky day

| March 4, 2021 1:30 AM

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

CALDWELL — Next man up.

When Darren "Day Day" Higgins, a 6-8 senior center and four-year varsity player, was lost for the season with a torn meniscus just before the district championship game, Lakeside boys basketball coach James Twoteeth turned to the next big man in the Knights' program and plugged him into the starting lineup.

Never mind that Lucky Matt was a freshman who had spent most of the season on the junior varsity, and would be making his first varsity start at state.

The 6-foot-4 Matt stepped up and played big, particularly in the game's final moments, finishing with 13 points and eight rebounds as Lakeside overtook Oakley in the second half for a 51-45 victory in the first round of the state 1A Division I tournament Wednesday afternoon at Vallivue High.

"I wasn’t really nervous," Matt said. "I stepped on the court with confidence, that’s all I need."

"He’s always been with us, but with Day Day out, we needed somebody to get in there," Lakeside coach James Twoteeth said. "He’s a big kid, and he likes to bang a little bit, so it’s to our advantage a little bit."

Lakeside (15-4), which moved up one classification after winning the state 1A Division II title last year, will play Riverstone (14-0) in a semifinal game today at 4 p.m. at Vallivue. Riverstone, a private school in Boise, defeated Prairie (17-6) 73-64.

With two minutes to play and the score tied at 42, Kenyon Spotted Horse got into the lane for Lakeside. His short jumper rolled off the rim, but Matt rebounded and scored to put the Knights ahead to stay.

Moments later, Matt took a feed from the penetrating Spotted Horse, scored and was fouled.

With Lakeside clinging to a two-point lead, Matt was fouled and calmly swished two free throws (he banked in his first attempt of the day from the line) with 16.4 seconds left. Vander Brown then stole the ball and was fouled, and iced it with two free throws with 9.7 seconds left.

"I was just thinking, if I roll, I’m going to get the ball automatically," Matt said. "I’m wide open; why not just go up with it?"

"Lucky stepped up a lot, coming from JV, showing that he deserved to be here," Lakeside forward Jayson "JJ" Hall said.

Hall, a senior, led Lakeside with 16 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots. Spotted Horse finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Brown had 10 points and five assists as only four Knights scored — but all were in double figures.

Hall scored eight of Lakeside's first 12 points. But Oakley (19-4) scored the last 14 points of the first quarter, and the first bucket of the second, to lead 20-10.

Lakeside picked up its defense after that, and slowly chipped away at Oakley's lead. The Knights caught up midway through the third, then the game went back and forth until Matt — with help from teammates driving and dishing him the ball — came up big late.

"At practice it’s man-to-man defense, man-to-man defense. We’re always working on our shifts," Hall said. "We’re a second-half team."

"One of my subs is Francis Louie; he doesn’t really play a lot, but when I put him in there, he usually amps us up," Twoteeth said of the 5-11 freshman. "And I don’t really know why; he gets in there and he dives all over, and it’s been working for us. I said, ‘that’s your role. I put you in, amp us up; that means we’re lacking in energy. I don’t want you to do anything else; just go in there, muck it up a little bit, dive on the floor' … he does that pretty well. He doesn’t care if he plays 30 seconds or 2 minutes … the older players feed off that."

Corbin Bedke of Oakley, a 6-1 senior forward, led all scorers with 17 points, and he had seven rebounds. Senior guard Jace Robinson hit two 3-pointers and added 12 points and five boards.

Oakley hit two 3s in the first quarter but finished just 4 of 21 from behind the arc.

The Hornets were 7 of 12 from the field in the first quarter, but finished just 18 of 47 (38.3%) for the game.

"They were able to penetrate the ball really well and get in situations where they put our guys in a little bit of foul trouble," Oakley coach Jeff Bedke said of Lakeside. "I thought we got our shots and looks — some a little bit rushed — but overall we just didn’t convert shots we usually convert."

Despite losing a key starter — the MVP of the North Star League as a junior — Lakeside still has its sights set on playing in the Ford Idaho Center on Day 3 of the tourney — just like the Knights did last year.

"Same goal; nothing’s changed," Hall said. "We lost a very good player in "Day Day," but same goal. Nothing’s changed."

Oakley 18 6 8 13 — 45

Lakeside 10 8 13 20 — 51

OAKLEY — I. Cranney 0, Wybenga 0, S. Pickett 2, Bedke 17, Beck 9, A. Cranney 3, Robinson 12, P. Pickett 2. Totals 18-47 5-7 45.

LAKESIDE — L. Matt 13, Brown 10, Abuan 0, SiJohn 0, Q. Hall 0, J. Hall 16, Spotted Horse 12, Louie 0, C. Matt 0. Totals 18-43 14-20 51.

photo

JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Vander Brown (1) of Lakeside dishes off to Lucky Matt for a basket against Oakley on Wednesday in the first round of the state 1A Division I boys basketball tournament at Vallivue High in Caldwell.