‘Keeping everybody on the ship’

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

The target has been on the backs of the Lake City High boys basketball team ever since the Timberwolves returned from last year’s state tournament, where with three sophomore starters they finished second to a seasoned Meridian squad.

A key transfer from Spokane joined the team this year, giving Lake City four junior starters and, given last year’s finish, loads of optimism that the T-Wolves can bring home the program’s first state title.

A Spokane TV station showed up to interview players for a story on the team.

At the first practice of the season.

“And we haven’t played a game yet,” Lake City coach Jim Winger recalled. “Our heads still have to fit through the door, and we’ve been great at that.”

Lake City has been the consensus No. 1 team in the state in 5A from start to finish, and brings a 22-1 record into the state 5A tournament at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa, beginning Thursday.

“We’ve embraced it a lot,” junior post Blake Buchanan said of the high expectations. “It’s been really fun, because our team works, we’ve got a bunch of guys that love basketball, we love being as a team, and we want to come in here every day and work. Having that pressure, we embraced it, we love it, and we like to go out and show why we’re that kind of team.”

Lake City has been a must-see act this year. Crowds are up, and the T-Wolves often put on a show, winning their games by an average of 19 points per game.

“Sometimes we’ve played to our expectations, sometimes we haven’t, but that’s the whole season, a roller coaster,” said junior point guard Kolton Mitchell, who surpassed 1,000 career points earlier this season. “And right now I think we’re playing our best basketball, which is perfect, because you want to be playing your best basketball at the end of the season. So going into state, we’re super confident.”

Winger is in his 14th season in his second stint as head coach at Lake City, and has coached the Timberwolves for 23 of the 28 years the school has been open.

“The basketball stuff out on the floor is great, but I felt coming into this year, the key to getting us to state was keeping everybody on the ship, I call it,” Winger said. “It’s four months, and there’s going to be highs and lows … just keeping the whole aspect of the program — the players, the parents, coaches, keeping us all together, keeping us on the ship.

“When you have teams as talented as this, sometimes that’s pretty hard to do. But it has been a very smooth process with attitudes and playing time. It’s really kind of an honor to be around them. It’s fun every day. You can’t always say that.”

Mitchell (averaging 18.0 points, 4.2 assists, 2.9 steals) has a scholarship offer from Idaho State.

The 6-foot-11 Buchanan (13.7 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.7 blocks), who transferred after playing as a freshman at Moscow High, has offers from Idaho, Pepperdine, San Jose State, San Francisco and Utah Valley, and is a shot-blocking presence inside.

Johnson (10.8 points, 6.4 rebounds) is being highly recruited in football, and gives the T-Wolves a physical presence inside.

Hocking (10.2 points, 4.7 rebounds) is a transfer from Ferris. Hocking and senior Miles Jones were praised by Winger for their defense in Lake City’s win over Lewiston in the Region 1 title game. And defense could be the T-Wolves’ X-factor at state.

Teams sometimes use gimmick defenses in an attempt to take away Mitchell, who has 55 3-pointers this season. But that has also created the opportunity for junior Deacon Kiesbuy, and freshmen Reese Strawn and Casen Miller to make shots and make the opponent pay.

“We’ve got other guys,” Winger said. “We have too many other weapons.”

Lake City won its first 17 games before stumbling in a five-point loss at Lewiston, when the Bengals drained 11 3-pointers.

Gone was the undefeated season.

“They were very upset, disappointed,” Winger said. “But I’ll tell you what — after that, we haven’t had a bad practice, our games … we’ve won almost all of them by running clock.

“It’s like we talked about … ‘What’s the difference whether you have one or two losses, or zero? OK, you’re undefeated — does that get you an extra special trophy? No.’ It was a good learning lesson for everybody, and we’ve handled it great."

Nineteen days later, led by the defense of Hocking and Jones, Lake City held Lewiston to 4-of-18 shooting from deep in a 77-28 beatdown for the regional title.

“I think it helped us a lot that we lost,” Buchanan said. “It sucked in the moment, but it motivated us. We realized that we’re not perfect, and our end goal was to win a state championship.”

Hocking had played AAU ball off and on with Mitchell and Buchanan with Eastern Washington Elite over the years. He said when his family decided to move to Idaho, he thought Lake City would be the best fit.

“I know it’s taken me the whole year, but I’m definitely figuring it out,” Hocking said. “I’m super happy, and I’m ready just to keep going, and hopefully we can bring Lake City a state title.”

“He brings all the energy every day to practice,” Mitchell said.

“He’s a great teammate,” Buchanan said. “He’s kind of that extra guy we needed to play ‘D’, and can make shots.”

“Corey Owen, our wrestling coach, called him a big golden retriever,” Winger said of the 6-6 Hocking. “And that’s perfect, because golden retrievers are happy, they’re always wanting to please and do the right thing. He’s one of the happiest kids that I’ve seen as a student. He has an infectious personality, and plays hard … he’s just an awesome kid. He’s just like the rest of these kids; great athlete.

“He’s done a very good job of fitting in, his teammates love him. That was the easy part, I thought. Nathan just needed to slow down. He wants to go 100 miles an hour because he wants to succeed and play as hard as he can play … well, you’ve got to use your head a little bit, too. I think over the last few weeks … even the game he scored three points (a couple weeks ago), he played a great game. He slowed down, played on two feet. That’s the key for him. He is a great defender. He’s a threat outside, he’s a threat inside. And his biggest attribute for us — he runs the floor. He flat gets down the floor.”

Two seasons ago, with Mitchell and Johnson freshmen starters, the young T-Wolves went two and out at state, and got an introduction to the more physical play down south.

Last year, the T-Wolves were a year older, and the physical play was still an issue — except when Johnson stepped in and held his ground in the post against Meridian man-child Brody Rowbury in the state title game.

This year, Lake City played six games in the Boise area in December to get even more used to that style of play.

The Timberwolves won at 5A qualifiers Meridian and Eagle, beat 4A qualifiers Burley and Pocatello at a tournament at Owyhee, and won at 4A qualifier Bishop Kelly.

“I think playing with those SIC (Southern Idaho Conference) refs, Boise refs, helped us, just to know what they’re like, and how we’re able to play,” Buchanan said.

“Boise is way different than up here,” Johnson said. “I think we’ll do a good job of adjusting because we played six games down there. It’s just a matter of hitting our stride while we’re down there.”

“They’re stronger,” Winger said of this year’s team. “We’re physical; we’re more mature. They’re a year older. We’ve grown a lot in all aspects.”

Including developing the mentality of a champion. In its history, Lake City has played in just two state title games — 2002, and last year.

“I think we’re a lot more confident,” Mitchell said. “Going into last year, we thought we could win, but we weren’t super positive about it. This year, we’re confident. We know we can win, we’ve won some big games, beat some good teams.”

“I’m just super impressed with everything about this team,” Winger said. “It certainly is the most talented team we’ve had here, but it’s also one of the most fun teams that we’ve been around. And in a coaching lifetime, you may never get that — ever. Those don’t come around very often.

"They’ve put in the time. All of them, including the new freshmen, from winter to our AAU stuff in the spring, to us in the summer, weekend shooting, they’ve got a passion for the game, and they’ve put in the time. And when you work that hard, and you put in that much time, you usually get rewarded.”