PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: Focused T-Wolves run away from Vikings
By JASON ELLIOTT
Sports writer
COEUR d’ALENE — As Lake City boys basketball coach Jim Winger puts it, when his team is focused — both mentally and physically — they can be pretty tough to beat.
Tuesday was one of those nights.
Junior point guard Kolton Mitchell scored 19 points, junior forward Zach Johnson added 14 points and the Timberwolves ran past the Coeur d’Alene Vikings 71-42 in an Inland Empire League game at Lake City High.
Winger added that it wasn’t before the game that tipped him off on what could be, but the previous day.
“Yesterday (Monday) was our second-best practice of the year,” Winger said. “It was a fantastic practice. A lot of times, that’s a good sign. In the shootaround, all the guys are focused and after that, I told them they’re ready and they were. They were really ready.”
MItchell scored 17 of his points in the first three quarters for Lake City (12-0) in its league opener. Lake City used a 10-0 run midway through the first quarter to pull away.
“We were excited, but more focused,” Mitchell said. “We didn’t talk much before the game and were just visualizing what we needed to do.”
Lake City led 42-21 at halftime and limited Coeur d’Alene to 13 field goals on the night.
“We did some good things, executed our zone stuff well, and our man stuff well,” Winger said. “We mixed up our defenses really well. We were solid in all facets of the game.”
Junior Blake Buchanan had 12 points and four blocked shots for Lake City, which hosts Lewiston on Thursday.
Coeur d’Alene (7-3, 1-1) hosts Post Falls on Friday.
“We’re a really good defensive team,” Winger said. “We’ve had some lapses with that, in particular at Sandpoint we broke down a lot. But I have a feeling it looked good on film. These guys have a lot of firepower, and if they’re prepared mentality and physically, they’re pretty good.”
Senior guard Tugg Wellsandt had 10 points for Coeur d’Alene, which was playing its first game since Dec. 30 against Meridian, the third game of three straight in the Boise area. Coeur d’Alene went 2-1, beating Meridian and Bishop Kelly.
“We weren’t prepared,” Coeur d’Alene coach Jon Adams said. “We weren’t focused. We went to Boise, and played well, and then had that ordeal getting back and guys getting sick, including myself. We haven’t had a full practice with all the guys and kind of rested on the fact we’d done good in Boise and weren’t focused. And you can’t do that against a team like Lake City. You’ve got to be right from the first possession and have to outplay them and outhustle them. And they put us on our heels.”
Coeur d’Alene was without starting point guard Steven Burgess, who was out with an illness.
“We’ve got to get healthy,” Adams said. “And if Steven isn’t here, or anyone isn’t here, we’ve got guys. I told our guys that it’s our first league game in a while, and that’s the high mark of where we want to get do. And we’ve got to figure out how we’re going to respond and what’s going to bring us together. And I think the guys see that in the bits and pieces of what we’ve done. But you can’t just sit on that and have that against the No. 1 team in the state.”
Coeur d’Alene 8 13 12 9 — 42
Lake City 17 25 19 10 — 71
COEUR d’ALENE — Entzi 3, King 4, McLaughlin 0, DeGraw 0, Larson 6, Wellsandt 10, Nipp 2, Cope 7, Orchard 8, G. Larson 0, Farrar 2.
LAKE CITY — Buchanan 12, Strawn 3, Jones 9, Miller 0, Kiesbuy 2, Hocking 9, Johnson 14, Weaver 3, Mitchell 19, Lind 0.
