5A REGION 1 BOYS BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: Perfect game — Lake City avenges only loss, crushes Lewiston to repeat as regional champs

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

COEUR d’ALENE — Lake City junior Nathan Hocking knew he might be in for a good night after he had rolled a 210 — a personal best — in bowling class earlier in the day.

As it turned out, a few hours later, the Lake City Timberwolves were the bowling ball — and the Lewiston Bengals were the pins.

Hounding the visitors all night on defense and punishing them — and the rims — on offense, Lake City avenged its only loss this season by crushing Lewiston 77-28 in the 5A Region 1 boys basketball tournament Tuesday night.

“Since last time we lost to them, we came with a chip on our shoulder,” Lake City junior guard Kolton Mitchell said. “This was probably our best team game; everybody was hitting shots and playing super defense. It was a fun game.”

Top-seeded Lake City (22-1), last year’s state runners-up, advances to state March 3-5 at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa. No. 3 Lewiston (17-6) will play at No. 2 Coeur d’Alene on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. for a berth in a state play-in game on Saturday. Coeur d’Alene (15-5) defeated No. 4 Post Falls (4-19) 67-46 in a loser-out game Tuesday night.

Hocking, a transfer from Ferris, made two 3-pointers and scored 10 of his game-high 15 points in the first quarter for Lake City.

“I’ve always had that in me,” Hocking said of his offensive prowess. “New school. Now that we’re in the state (tournament), it’s going to come out a lot more.”

Blake Buchanan had a double-double by halftime and finished with 14 points — all in the first half — and 14 rebounds. Zach Johnson added 13 points and Deacon Kiesbuy hit two 3s and scored 10 off the bench.

Lewiston tried a diamond-and-two on Johnson and Mitchell. Mitchell countered with eight assists and four steals to go with his eight points. He took just four shots from the field as everyone else was scoring on this night.

Lake City shot 60% (30 of 50) from the field, including 6 of 14 on 3s.

“Probably the best defensive effort maybe ever played in there,” said Jim Winger, who had coached Lake City for 23 of its 28 seasons. “The way we played tonight, defensively and the sheer energy and passion for the game, I’m still like, wow. We shared the ball well, pushed the ball well … it’s as good as a team could look, I would have to think. From start to finish.”

Lewiston made 11 3s in its 62-57 upset of Lake City at home. Nineteen days later, the Bengals managed just one 3 in the first half and finished 4 for 18 from deep.

“Nathan and Miles (Jones, a senior) were sensational on (Jace) McKarcher and (Braydon) Forsman,” Winger said. “We call it ‘full red,’ which means you’re on ’em as tight as you can go, and not helping off as far as the others, and flat-out no 3s. Nathan, in particular, was awesome defensively, and his offense fed off of that. Those two (Hocking and Jones), they did what we wanted them to, to the letter.”

Lewiston hit a 3 right off the bat, but didn’t hit another until early in the second half. Hocking and Kiesbuy had five points each in a 10-run that hiked Lake City’s lead to 21-5 early in the second quarter. The T-Wolves scored 29 in the quarter and led 40-13 at halftime.

Lake City boosted its lead to 66-24 after three quarters, and the fourth quarter was played with a running clock.

“When we play like that, that’s just how it is. We win by 50,” Johnson said.

“Once we had that loss down in Lewiston, it really motivated us,” Buchanan said. “We kinda came together, started practicing harder. We just knew that we weren’t going to let a team beat us like that, and we wanted to send a (message) to the rest of the state that we’re the No. 1 team, and we’re coming for the state championship.”

Drew Hottinger scored seven points for Lewiston, which finished 9 of 39 from the field.

“Lake City’s really, really good. They came ready to play, and we didn’t match it very well at all,” Lewiston coach Jayson Ulrich said. “Hats off to them. We just fell asleep on the back side defensively (in the triangle-and-two); we can’t lose vision of everybody else out there. They swarmed; defensively they were great tonight. We did not shoot very well, we did not execute very well. They’re long, and they were physical. We didn’t match that.”

Lewiston 5 8 11 4 — 28

Lake City 11 29 26 11 — 77

LEWISTON — Eke 5, McKarcher 3, Paulucci 0, Way 2, Hepburn 2, A. Hottinger 0, Forsman 5, Wren 0, Lawrence 2, White 2, D. Hottinger 7, Mader 0.

LAKE CITY — Buchanan 14, Strawn 7, Hill 3, Jones 6, Miller 0, Kiesbuy 10, Hocking 15, Z. Johnson 13, Weaver 1, K. Johnson 0, Mitchell 8, Lind 0.

Coeur d’Alene 67, Post Falls 46: Senior Cameren Cope scored eight of his 16 points in the first quarter as the Vikings (15-5) eliminated the Trojans (4-19) in a loser-out game at Viking Court.

Senior Cooper Larson had eight of his 14 points in the first quarter for Coeur d’Alene, which led 20-9 after the first quarter.

“Cameren really established himself early on,” Coeur d’Alene coach Jon Adams said. “Post Falls is a young, patient team and we made some adjustments.”

Sophomore Gunnar Larson scored 15 points for Coeur d’Alene, which hosts Lewiston in the second-place game on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

“Gunnar was a big spark plug for us in the second half defensively,” Adams said. “It was definitely one of those full team contributions, whether it was points, assists or deflections. Everyone was pretty pleased.”

Jack Sciortino scored 14 points, Tyras Blake 13 points for Post Falls.

Post Falls 9 13 11 13 — 46

Coeur d’Alene 20 17 11 19 — 67

POST FALLS — Sciortino 14, Naylor 1, Shields 0, McCarthy 5, VonBruck 7, Craig 2, Bowie 4, Blake 13, Butler 0, Cooper 0.

COEUR d’ALENE — DeGraw 0, Entzi 1, King 5, C. Larsen 14, Wellsandt 0, Nipp 2, Cope 16, Burgess 6, Orchard 8, G. Larsen 15.