4A REGION 1 BOYS BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: Third-seeded Lakeland sweeps its way into state

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

RATHDRUM — This just in: The Lakeland Hawks are headed to the state 4A boys basketball tournament with a 6-16 record.

This also just in: The Hawks don’t care what anybody thinks about them going to state with that kind of a record.

“We’re a lot better than our record shows,” Lakeland senior guard Scotty Hocking said after the third-seeded Hawks finished off a sweep of the top-seeded Sandpoint Bulldogs with a 60-30 trouncing in Game 2 of a best-of-3 series for the 4A Region 1 championship on Friday night at Hawk Court. “We just stayed with the grind in practice, and we all had the same mentality, we all wanted to go to state. And we all just knew if we kept on playing defense, and getting better every single day, then it would come.

Even better, Lakeland entered the week with a 3-16 record, then doubled that win total with three wins in five days — two of those on the road.

The Hawks won 61-56 at second-seeded Moscow on Monday in a loser-out game, then won 66-64 at Sandpoint on Wednesday in Game 1 of the regional championship series.

How do you explain that?

“I wish I could,” second-year Lakeland coach Tony Hanna said. “They just never stopped believing. These are the greatest kids in the world. I know they were hearing crap for our record this year; with social media and everything, people were giving them a hard time. It is what it is, and they just didn’t listen to it. They just said, we have just as good a chance as anybody.

“That’s the thing about Idaho; sometimes you love it, sometimes you don’t; all that really matters is the district tournament.”

Lakeland advances to state next week at Rocky Mountain High in Meridian, and will be either the seventh or eighth seed. If Skyview beats Ridgevue tonight, Lakeland will be the eighth seed and face top-seeded Hillcrest. If Ridgevue wins, the Hawks will be the seventh seed and open vs. the No. 2 seed.

Arie VanDenBerg scored 10 points for Sandpoint, which finishes 8-15.

Hocking, the lone returning starter, scored 16 points for the Hawks, who lost to the Bulldogs at home last year in the loser-out first round of regionals.

But the surprise was fellow senior Collin Cameron, who scored 16 of his game-high 23 points in the second half for Lakeland, which advances to state for the first time since 2021.

“He’s a guy, he knows he’s a better shooter than the way he’s been performing,” Hanna said of Cameron. “Almost every day, he’s in the gym after practice. I just kept waiting for it, and he got that breakthrough tonight, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Sandpoint, bidding for its first trip to state since 2009, took a 20-18 lead on Rusty Lee’s driving layin with just over 4 minutes left in the first half.

But Lakeland finished the half on a 9-0 run, keyed by two baskets from junior reserve Kenton Ferguson — his only points of the night — then opened the third quarter on a 10-1 spurt, highlighted by 3s from Cameron and Hocking.

A 3-pointer by freshman Sage Medeiros — Sandpoint’s only 3 of the night — ended a span of 8 minutes between field goals for the Bulldogs.

But that didn’t stop Lakeland from pulling away, as the Bulldogs scored just two more baskets the rest of the game.

“That’s been something that’s plagued us from time to time this year,” second-year Sandpoint coach Brian Childs said. “Nothing quite like this. But overall, this game doesn’t define who these kids are. We put ourselves in a position to host this tournament, had a heartbreaker the other night for us. But I feel pretty good about the direction that we’re headed.”

Sandpoint hit eight 3s in Game 1 on Wednesday, but just the one on Friday.

“Against Sandpoint, the key to them is to not let their shooters get started,” Hanna said. “The goal was to chase (Parker Childs) off everything. Collin and Kenton did a great job of chasing him around the court, not letting him get anything open.”

Nick Nowell, who scored the game-winning basket with 1.4 seconds left in Game 1, added seven points on Friday for Lakeland, which lost to Sandpoint in the first meeting of the season, then won the last three.

“They’ve found it,” Childs said of Lakeland. “You’ve got to give them some credit. It just got away from us tonight; we just couldn’t stop the bleeding.”

“We just doubled them in the championship game,” Hanna said. “That was our best game of the year. Give us a shot.”

Sandpoint 12 8 6 4 — 30

Lakeland 16 11 20 13 — 60

SANDPOINT — Pettit 2, Lee 6, Frank 2, VanDenBerg 10, Medeiros 3, Eacret 0, Dickinson 2, Childs 0, Lane 3, Bopp 2, Jones 0, Hindberg 0.

LAKELAND — Nowell 7, Cameron 23, Ferguson 4, Ryan 4,Tebbe 0, Rothrock 0, Loutzenhiser 3, Hocking 16, Harris 0, Locke 3.