STATE 5A BOYS BASKETBALL: Lake City suffocates Highland, atones for last year's first-round upset

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

NAMPA — No long faces after their first-round game at state this time.

A first-half defensive clinic for the ages took care of that.

The top-seeded Lake City Timberwolves held the eighth-seeded Highland Rams to one basket in the first half, led 27-3 at intermission and went on to finish off a suffocating 62-25 victory in the first round of the state 5A boys basketball tournament Thursday night at the Ford Idaho Center.

“We just had energy; we wanted to go at it,” said Lake City senior Blake Buchanan, who finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds. “We just wanted to get after it defensively, and send a message that, when in doubt, we know we can play defense.”

Lake City (24-0) will play fourth seed Madison (19-6) of Rexburg in the semifinals today at 1 p.m. PST. Madison beat Eagle 48-45.

Highland (14-13) at state for the first time since 2016 after a long run of state success, missed its first 10 shots and was 1 of 18 for the half. The Rams finished 10 of 46 (21.7%) for the game.

“We came out and wanted to send a message, different from last year,” said Lake City senior Kolton Mitchell, who finished with a game-high 12 points, 10 in the first half. “We had a little different mentality; be a little more aggressive, dictate the pace more.”

Highland joined Bishop Kelly and Post Falls as teams shut out by Lake City in the first quarter. The Timberwolves were particularly effective once they went to their trapping half-court defense, flying at shooters, chasing people off the line, and giving Highland nothing easy.

“Defensively I thought we played as hard as we can play,” Lake City coach Jim Winger said. “We were getting after it. We can throw a lot of different things at people, and I thought they executed them really well. … I’ve been around a while; I don’t remember seeing 3 points at a state tournament, so obviously we did a pretty good job.”

Lake City tied a 5A record for fewest points allowed to an opponent; Pocatello also allowed 25 points, in a 2000 game.

“(Against their) man to man, we were able to move the ball decently, and then you saw they flipped the switch and went to that 1-2-2 half-court trap, and that caused us some problems,” first-year Highland coach Matt Stucki said. “And they were committing two people to the ball, and we were a second behind on our passes, and it caused a lot of chaos and confusion. They really souped up the tempo.”

Winger said the offense could have been better — a little too much standing around — but Lake City still shot 56.8% (25 of 44) from the floor for the game.

Buchanan, the Virginia signee, started the scoring by spinning baseline for a dunk — one of his four dunks on the night. Lake City led 15-0 before Highland finally scored with 6:11 left in the first half. Even then, the T-Wolves answered right back with Mitchell scoring in transition, and finished the half on a 12-3 run.

Zach Johnson and Deacon Kiesbuy each added nine points for Lake City, as did Nathan Hocking, who was in foul trouble much of the game.

The T-Wolves returned to the scene of last year’s first-round heartbreak, losing to eighth seed Centennial as the No. 1 seed in the first game of the tournament, with a noon tip local time.

“We’ve been waiting for this moment,” Buchanan said. “It’s been a year; we were locked in.”

This year defending champion Owyhee, playing the noon opener, was upended in overtime by Meridian.

“12 o’clock game; we know how they feel,” Buchanan said. “It’s a hard game to play, for sure.”

“I was really happy they put us in the 7 o’clock game (this year),” Winger said.

In the handshake line at the end of Thursday’s game, Stucki stopped Mitchell, the Idaho State signee, for a few words. Stucki, who starred at Century High in Pocatello, graduating in 2002, played at Idaho State as well as a year in Germany.

“He said ‘Welcome to the Bengal family, and he’ll be watching me the next four years,’” Mitchell said. “Super nice.”

“He’s Bengal family now,” Stucki said. “I said ‘Welcome to the family; it’s going to be fun to watch you the next four years.’ He’s good, really good. He can push that ball; sees well, can finish, can shoot. They’ve got a lot of nice pieces.”

Lake City is focusing on Lake City this year. But the T-Wolves are aware Madison was also part of their heartache at state last year, beating them in the consolation title game.

“They beat us sophomore year, beat us in summer league, beat us last year,” Buchanan said. “It’s kinda personal.”

“They’re going to have the whole town there, but that’s OK,” Winger said of Madison. “I don’t look at it as payback; I look at it as, we’ve got to play the way we can play, and if we do, I think we’ve got a great shot.”

Highland 0 3 10 12 — 25

Lake City 11 16 20 15 — 62

HIGHLAND — Durham 0, Erickson 0, Barela 2, Davis 0, Wilde 2, Tingey 3, Hazelbush 0, Stevens 3, Glenn 0, Bartel 2, Traore 0, Wright 4, Smuin 0, Campbell 7, Shaw 2. Totals 10-46 2-5 25.

LAKE CITY — Buchanan 11, Strawn 6, Hill 2, Watson 0, Miller 4, Kiesbuy 9, Johnson 9, Mitchell 12, Snow 0, Hocking 9. Totals 25-44 8-14 62.