PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: Lake City starts strong, routs Coeur d'Alene

COEUR d’ALENE — Deacon Kiesbuy started it with a 3-pointer.

Nathan Hocking followed with an inside bucket.

Kolton Mitchell drained a 3, forcing a quick timeout by Coeur d’Alene less than two minutes into the game.

The onslaught continued, however, as eight of the nine Lake City players who played scored, and the Timberwolves, ranked No. 1 in 5A, notched a season high in points in routing the Vikings 90-53 in Inland Empire League play Saturday night before another big crowd at Lake City.

“It’s funny,” Lake City coach Jim Winger said. “My son, JJ, said the other day ‘Dad, one of these games all your guys are going to cut it loose, and play a great three quarters, and I think we did that today. Scoring a lot of points is nice, but the thing these guys don’t get enough credit for is defense. Particularly the last month, our defense has been outstanding. We’ve got a lot of firepower, but when we get after it on defense, we’re an awfully tough team.”

Mitchell hit five 3s, four in a 16-point third quarter, and led all scorers with 29 points for Lake City (15-0, 4-0 IEL). Kiesbuy finished with two 3s and added 16 points, Hocking scored 10 of his 15 points in the first half, and Blake Buchanan had seven of his 12 points in the first quarter.

Lake City won at Coeur d’Alene 77-52 two weeks ago in the Fight for the Fish spirit game.

“I wanted to play a little better today, and as a team, we weren’t real satisfied on how the game went,” Mitchell said. “This time we wanted to come out a little stronger, execute our plays better, execute our defense better.”

“We let them hang around a bit too long the last time,” Buchanan said. “And we knew we had to come out strong. We knew they could play with us, and so we had to go out and hit them strong.”

Lake City led 40-10 midway through the second quarter, and put on a defensive and offensive clinic in the first half in taking a 50-21 lead into the locker room.

“We can pressure out on the 3-point line because we have Blake waiting for you, and Zach’s no slouch under there either,” Winger said. “We’ve got a lot of things we can do defensively that we can beat once in a while on the bounce — we don’t want to — but we’ve got a 6-foot-11 guy going to Virginia (Buchanan) staring at you. That changes the game. Scoring a lot of points is nice, but the way we’re playing defense is tremendous.”

That defense slipped a bit in the third quarter, and Winger called a timeout early in the third quarter, with Lake City up 61-29, and laid into his team.

Logan Orchard scored 16 points for Coeur d’Alene (11-6, 3-3), which lost 53-51 at home to Post Falls two nights earlier.

On Tuesday, Coeur d’Alene plays host to Lewiston, and Lake City travels to Post Falls.

Coeur d’Alene 8 13 16 16 — 53

Lake City 26 24 24 16 — 90

COEUR d’ALENE — Larson 5, Orchard 16, Cherny 0,Smith 2, Nipp 12, Entzi 1, Rupp 8, Burgess 0, Symons 7, Ivankovich 2.

LAKE CITY — Buchanan 12, Strawn 5, Hill 3, Miller 4, Kiesbuy 16, Johnson 6, Mitchell 29, Snow 0, Hocking 15.

St. Maries 72

Grangeville 48

GRANGEVILLE — Senior Dillon Holder had 19 points, hitting 3 of 7 from the 3-point line, as the Lumberjacks ran past the Bulldogs in a Central Idaho League game.

“Dillon did a nice job at the point tonight and did a good job of taking care of the basketball,” said St. Maries coach Bryan Chase, who is without starting guard Greyson Sands for at least three more weeks due to a knee injury. “It’s been nice to have someone that had the offense go through them be able to step in and run it smoothly.”

Senior Tristun Hill had 15 points and 10 rebounds, Trace Wicks 12 points for St. Maries (8-3, 3-1 CIL), which hosts Genesis Prep on Monday.

Grangeville is 2-12, 0-5.

St. Maries 15 20 19 18 — 72

Grangeville 7 12 11 18 — 48

ST. MARIES — Holmes 9, Badgett 3, Barta 1, Yearout 2, Holder 19, Hill 15, Renner 9, Wicks 12, Loper 2.

GRANGEVILLE — Legaretta 3, Holes 2, Branford 2, Mundt 12, Klament 12, Lindsley 11, Goicoa 2, Wassmuth 0.

Genesis Prep 56

Coeur du Christ 46

POST FALLS — Senior Landon Young scored 14 points for the Jaguars in a nonleague win over the Saints at The Courts at Real Life.

“We didn’t come out with a lot of energy in the first half,” Genesis Prep coach Lon Morast said. “But we finished the game really well. Landon scored 10 of his 14 in the first half, all on hustle points. He was scrappy and got a lot of baskets in front of the hoop.”

Donovan Daniels scored 12 for Genesis Prep (7-8), which travels to St. Maries on Monday.

Patrick Schlader had 24 points and 29 rebounds for Coeur du Christ.

Coeur du Christ 14 11 10 11 — 46

Genesis Prep 13 16 11 16 — 56

COEUR du CHRIST — Schlader 24, S. Hayes 9, Connelly 9, Drewsen 4, J. Urbina 0, Hayes 0, A. Urbina 0, Renner 0.

GENESIS PREP — Daniels 12, Russworm 2, Rubert 10, Tosh 7, Young 14, Specht 11, Farrell 0, Martin 0, Wood 0.

Lakeside 69

Orofino 50

OROFINO — Senior Vander Brown scored 17 points and junior Brutis SiJohn added 15 as the 1A Division I Knights ran past the 2A Maniacs.

Junior Liam Hendrickx scored 12 points for Lakeside (9-3), which travels to Clark Fork on Wednesday.

Joel Scott scored 19 for Orofino (7-5).

Lakeside 16 17 11 25 — 69

Orofino 9 13 6 22 — 50

LAKESIDE — Brown 17, SiJohn 15, Callahan 7, Rivera 0, Hall 5, Hendrickx 12, Charley 11, Moffit 2.

OROFINO — Hanna 5, Schneider 2, Drobish 5, Hudson 6, T. Grey 2, Scott 19, Naranjo 0, Olive 8, H. Gray 3.

Kellogg 50

Newport 27

KELLOGG — Senior Logan Hendrix scored 15 points as the host Wildcats completed a stretch of 10 games in 17 days, finishing 9-1 after a nonleague win over the Grizzlies at Andrews Gymnasium.

Kolton Maciosek had six rebounds, Luke Miller four steals for Kellogg (14-4), who played without twins Kolby and Riply Luna, on a football recruiting visit to the University of Oregon.

“It was nice to see the guys come out and really work on the defensive side of things; that’s back-to-back games holding teams under 30 points,” said Kellogg coach Mike Martin, whose Wildcats played with a shot clock at Andrews Gymnasium for the first time. “Nice to see them step up and take advantage of opportunities from good spots on the floor.”

Ronan Sherman led Newport (4-13) with 12 points.

Kellogg is off until Feb. 10, when the Wildcats host Bonners Ferry.

Newport 8 7 6 6 — 27

Kellogg 16 6 9 19 — 50

NEWPORT — Smith 0, Mackey 4, C. Loosier 4, N. Loosier 0, Brown 0, Sherman 12, Owen 4, Becker 3.

KELLOGG — Miller 2, Whatcott 8, McLean 7, Coburn 6, Maciosek 6, O’Neill 2, Hendrix 15, Taylor 4.

N.I. Christian 67

Country Christian 39

COEUR d’ALENE — Larry Fendich scored 23 points for the Royals in a Mountain Christian League win over Country Christian of Pasco at Holy Family Catholic School.

Colton Smith scored 17 for North Idaho Christian (16-11, 12-2 MCL), which faces Coeur d’Christ on Wednesday at the HUB Sports Center in Liberty Lake.

Ryan Brubaker scored 18 for Country Christian.

Country Christian 8 11 7 13 — 39

N.I. Christian 25 20 16 6 — 67

COUNTRY CHRISTIAN — Blocher 0, Reavis 4, Prantle 0, Goin 2, W. Miller 4, Brubaker 18 (Ryan), Albin 0, Morgan 1, C. Miller 10.

NORTH IDAHO CHRISTIAN — Fendich 23, Hunter 5, Smith 17, Cadar 3, Ca. Malinauskas 6, Winde 0, Scott 3, Antone 4, Sakae 2, Sullivan 4.