PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: Nipp, Burgess lead Vikings past Lewiston

COEUR d’ALENE — In a must-win situation, coaches turn to the guys they trust the most.

On Tuesday, it was Coeur d’Alene High seniors Alexander Nipp and Steven Burgess that delivered the Vikings some home cooking.

Nipp scored 17 points, Burgess added 16 for the Vikings, who beat the visiting Lewiston Bengals 60-44 in a key Inland Empire League game at Viking Court.

“They’ve played together for two, three years and have developed a great synergy within the last couple of months,” Adams said. “Steven’s ballhandling is exceptional and Alex just knows how to get to the basket and where he wants to shoot it. They’re seniors, veteran players and they showed it tonight.”

With the win, Coeur d’Alene (11-6, 4-3 IEL) swept the season series from Lewiston (11-5, 3-3) after beating the Bengals 57-49 at Lewiston on Jan. 17.

But a loss at home to Post Falls last week meant Coeur d'Alene needed another win over Lewiston to stay ahead of the Bengals in the standings.

“Lewiston, it’s the second time we’ve played them and we’ll probably see them again once, maybe twice,” Adams said. “They’ve got big guys, and all of them can shoot. We knew that if we could get out on their shooters, we’d have a chance. We had a lot of contested shots and were able to put the ball on the ground and get to the basket. This very much was a defensive effort for us tonight.”

Coeur d’Alene finishes the regular season at Moscow on Feb. 8 and Lakeland on Feb. 10.

“It really allows us two weeks to get prepared for the district games, which will most likely be Lewiston again,” Adams said. “They’re still really good teams, but it gives us some time to get ready.”

Burgess scored 14 of his 16 points in the first half.

Drew Hottinger scored 15 points for Lewiston, which travels to Sandpoint on Saturday.

“Burgess controlled the game really well and controlled the clock well,” Adams said. “He got the basket, drew contact and we were able to get to the foul line in the first half. Second half, we just said, ‘let’s take care of this game’ and backed it out. We got pretty good, crafty guards and did a good job of managing the game once we got the lead. They’re going to hit their shots, but once they started missing, we rebounded a lot better and were able to seal the game.”

Lewiston 15 9 12 8 — 44

Coeur d’Alene 14 20 17 9 — 60

LEWISTON — Arlint 0, Way 3, Knewbow 0, Bramlet 2, Mader 3, White 3, Wren 10, Bensching 0, Hottinger 15, Lawrence 8.

COEUR d’ALENE — Larson 6, Orchard 7, Nipp 17, Entzi 0, Rupp 4, Burgess 16, Symons 10.

Lake City 66

Post Falls 33

POST FALLS — Sophomore Reese Strawn hit seven 3-pointers and finished with 23 points as the Timberwolves, ranked No. 1 in 5A, beat the Trojans in Inland Empire League play at The Arena.

Strawn hit five 3s and scored 15 points in the second quarter for Lake City (16-0, 5-0 IEL).

“Playing a team like Lake City, with so many weapons,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said, “they’ve been assembled in such a way, those pieces complement each other. They did a good job making the extra pass and finding the open shooter.”

Kolton Mitchell hit three 3s and added 19 points for Lake City, and Blake Buchanan had 13 points.

Neil McCarthy scored all nine of his points on 3s for Post Falls (3-15, 1-5). Trenton McLean hit two 3s and added eight points for the Trojans.

“You can’t run with a team like Lake City, but we were trying to be methodical,” Mike McLean said. “If — and it’s a big if — you have a mismatch inside, you better exploit it immediately, because once Blake gets back in the middle you don’t have a mismatch.”

Lake City plays host to St. Maries tonight at 7.

Post Falls returns to action Saturday at Lakeland.

Lake City 13 22 18 13 — 66

Post Falls 2 10 15 6 — 33

LAKE CITY — Buchanan 13, Strawn 23, Hill 0, Miller 1, Kiesbuy 0, Johnson 6, Mitchell 19, Snow 0, Hocking 0.

POST FALLS — Anderson 0, Ostlund 2, McLean 8, McCarthy 9, Shields 3, Cameron 0, Craig 4, McKeown 0, Wolfe 0, Blake 0, Bowie 4, Carver 3.

Bonners Ferry 77

Lakeland 57

BONNERS FERRY — The visiting 4A Hawks cut the deficit to four points at halftime, but the 3A Badgers inched away in the second half.

Asher Williams scored a game-high 23 points for Bonners Ferry (15-1), ranked No. 1 in 3A. Riley Petesch and Thomas Bateman added 11 points each, and Ridge Williams had 10.

“Just getting defensive stops for us,” Bonners Ferry coach Nathan Williams said. “One stop at a time, and maybe we wore them down a little bit.”

Scotty Hocking hit three 3s and led Lakeland (3-12) with 17 points. Nick Nowell added 10 for the Hawks, who plays host to Post Falls on Saturday.

Bonners Ferry visits St. Maries on Friday.

Lakeland 18 15 10 14 — 57

Bonners Ferry 22 15 17 23 — 77

LAKELAND — Nowell 10, Cameron 8, Ferguson 8, Ryan 9, Tebbe 0, Rothrock 0, Loutzenhiser 0, Hocking 17, Anderson 3, Harris 2, Locke 0.

BONNERS FERRY — R. Williams 10, E. Blackmore 2, Henslee 2, Petesch 11, A. Williams 23, Th. Bateman 11, Hammons 0, Tr. Bateman 9, B. Blackmore 9.

Clark Fork 76

Kootenai 29

CLARK FORK — Chris Moore scored 13 points for the visiting Warriors in the North Star League loss to the Wampus Cats.

Senior Nathan Shelton scored 17 points on senior night for Clark Fork (4-0 NSL).

Kootenai (0-11, 0-4) plays host to Coeur du Christ on Friday.

Kootenai 4 5 9 11 — 29

Clark Fork 26 16 22 12 — 76

KOOTENAI — C. Moore 13, Ausman 5, Tiller 0, Hodges 4, Addington 0, Myers 4, J. Moore 3.

CLARK FORK — Shelton 17, Matteson 2, Bailey 11, Mintken 0, Montgomery 0, W. Caven 7, Christofferson 4, Co. Sanroman 8, Stevens 5, E. Howard 7, Holderman 0, Ch. Sanroman 0, S. Caven 9, O. Howard 6.