5A REGION 1 GIRLS BASKETBALL: Familiar foes in familiar spot ... Lake City to play at Coeur d'Alene for regional title Tuesday

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

So close.

So familiar.

So, why not meet up on Tuesday night for a trip to the state 5A girls basketball tournament?

That’s exactly what the Lake City Timberwolves and Coeur d’Alene Vikings will do at Viking Court, following wins in the opening round of the 5A Region 1 Tournament on Friday night.

“It’s hard to play a team for a third time,” said Coeur d’Alene coach Nicole Symons, whose top-seeded Vikings beat No. 4 Lewiston 69-34 at home on Friday. “You know each other so well. It’s really going to come down to who focuses on defense. We’re going to have to do a good job of staying out on their shooters.”

Lake City coach James Anderson agreed.

“We’re going to have to be super efficient,” said Anderson following the No. 2 Timberwolves' 66-49 win over visiting No. 3 Post Falls on Friday. “These teams know each other so well, that it’s going to boil down to the details and being super efficient. Hopefully we can be ready to go, not let the nerves get to us and control what we can control. Whatever happens, happens.”

On Tuesday, Lake City (18-4) travels to Coeur d’Alene (20-2) in the regional championship game. Post Falls (17-5) hosts Lewiston (6-15) in a loser-out game.

Both games are at 6:30 p.m.

Coeur d'Alene and Lake City will meet for the regional title for the fifth straight year, each team winning twice during that span.

Last year, Lake City upset Coeur d’Alene in the regional title game at Viking Court.

Coeur d’Alene won the two games between the schools during the regular season — a 54-41 home win in the Fight for the Fish spirit game on Jan. 13, then a 45-40 road win on Jan. 28.

“We’ll need to bring the energy and intensity on Tuesday,” Symons said. “We have them at home, so hopefully we’ll have some people in the crowd. But it’s just going to come down to who’s going to bring the energy and focus offensively and defensively.

Coeur d’Alene 69, Lewiston 34: The top-seeded Vikings hit 10 3-pointers en route to a 45-16 halftime lead.

“They were kind of packing it in inside, so we’d pass and they were giving us some open shots,” Symons said. “We jacked up a few, so I called a time. I told our girls if we dribble, penetrate and then kick it out, it will be open. And the girls kind of got on fire.”

Junior guard Teagan Colvin hit four 3-pointers in the second quarter, finishing with 15 points for Coeur d'Alene Senior Libby Awbery had four 3-pointers, three in the first half, for 13 points and senior Madi Symons had 12 points for the Vikings.

“We started a little slow just from having to play them Tuesday night,” said Nicole Symons, whose team beat Lewiston 83-38 in the regular season finale at Viking Court. “Lewiston came out and competed. But we really picked it up in the second quarter.”

Zoe Kessinger scored 10 points for Lewiston.

Lewiston 13 12 6 3 — 34

Coeur d’Alene 16 29 15 9 — 69

LEWISTON — Vantrease 0, Arenno 0, DeGroot 5, B. Albright 0, Delich 0, D. Albright 8, McKarcher 0, M. Kessinger 0, Z. Kessinger 10, Patterson 0, J. Albright 0, Jackson 3, Samuels 2, Burke 6.

COEUR d’ALENE — Colvin 15, Mitchell 5, Awbery 13, Omlin 9, Symons 12, Paulson 0, Lopez 3, Holecek 2, Legg 2, Larson 0, Grey 2, Carroll 3, Wallis 2.

Lake City 66, Post Falls 49: Junior Avery Waddington scored 13 of her game-high 21 points in the second half for the Timberwolves, who took a 29-22 halftime lead. Senior Emberlyn Reynolds had eight of her 12 in the second half for Lake City, six in the fourth quarter.

“We knew, and it was super unfortunate that (Post Falls junior forward) Letti (Asper) got hurt when we played on Tuesday,” Anderson said. “They were a little smaller than they’d like to be, and it was going to be a point of emphasis for us and we needed to win the battle for the points in the paint. It took us a while to get into a rhythm with that because they were doing a good job in the first half, but it opened up in the second half.”

Post Falls junior guard Brooklyn Brennan scored nine points in the first quarter as the Trojans took a 12-11 lead. Lake City went on an 8-0 run to open the second quarter.

“We had a really good start to the second quarter,” Anderson said. “It’s a playoff game, so there might have been some nerves. Credit to Post Falls. They had a good game plan and bogged down a few things that we were able to do to them the other day. They did a good job of showing up and getting after us for a while.”

Senior Capri Sims scored 18 points, Brennan 13 for Post Falls.

Post Falls also lost starting guard Myckenzee Mitley to an ankle injury early in the first quarter. She did not return.

“We played them tough for three quarters, and it was a lot better than the first two times we played them,” Post Falls coach Brian Hall said. “The girls saw a little light, but it’s hard with two injuries to two of our better players with ankle injuries.”

Lake City defeated Post Falls 77-61 on Tuesday at The Arena.

“We played tough and gave it everything we had,” Hall said. “We won that first quarter and got within five after the third. It was big for us because they’d jumped out to a big lead. I’d like to play them again.”

Post Falls 12 10 15 12 — 49

Lake City 11 18 13 24 — 66

POST FALLS — McLean 9, Berg 2, Walton 7, McGowan 0, Brennan 13, Sims 18, Mitley 0, Miller 0, Hollenbeck 0.

LAKE CITY — Kolden 0, Frazey 0, Pickford 10, Bowman 4, Zufelt 9, Waddington 21, McKellips 8, Holzer 2, Reynolds 12, Zimmerman 0.