THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Lakeside's state title win a shocker to everybody — except Lakeside

In early January, I watched on the NFHS Network as Lakeside’s boys basketball team gave mighty Lapwai a game — something few teams had done this season — before falling 89-76 at Lapwai.

Watching the teams go through the handshake line after the game, I watched a Lakeside player and a Lapwai player exchange words — just a little trash talk, it looked like — but the exchange ended with the Lapwai player pointing at the scoreboard.

Weeks later, I asked a Lakeside player if he remembered that exchange, which happened nearly two months earlier, and he said he did.

Whether that incident carried over to the rematch last Saturday, in the state 1A Division I championship game at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa … who knows?

BUT ONE thing was for certain, in the leadup to Lakeside vs. Lapwai II — the Lakeside players and coaches were confident they could beat Lapwai, or at least give them a game.

They said as much one week earlier at North Idaho College, after the Knights had punched their ticket to state.

And they said as much after their first two games at state, at Vallivue High in Caldwell.

Now, they might have been among the only ones who thought this — most who weighed in via the internet figured Lakeside would keep it close throughout, lose by perhaps a half-dozen or a dozen, and the Knights would feel good about themselves as they walked off the court with the second-place trophy.

One other thing I noticed from the early January matchup — Lakeside could score with Lapwai.

Part of that reason was that Lakeside has several good offensive players. Part of it looked like Lapwai played defense like it knew it could outscore teams.

Plus, the Wildcats couldn’t afford to get their key players in foul trouble.

SO LATE Saturday morning, Lakeside came out and hit 17 of 25 shots (68%) in the first half — most of them on drives, some of floaters, and three of them from behind the 3-point arc.

Meanwhile, Lapwai died by the jump shot in the first half, hitting 6 of 24 — thanks in part to a box-and-one defense by Lakeside, with freshman Tyson Charley guarding Lapwai junior Kase Wynott, who came in averaging a double-double, and with offers from four Division I schools.

Charley was in the seventh grade Lapwai last lost a game.

“And that’s a crazy, daunting task to ask a freshman to do that,” Lakeside coach James Twoteeth said. “He’s a strong kid; he doesn’t play like a freshman. He was up to the challenge.”

The Knights led by a shocking 22 points (44-22) at halftime — against a team coming in winners of 62 straight games, looking for a three-peat.

NOW, YOU knew Lapwai was going to make a second-half comeback.

Wynott scored 27 of his 40 points in the second half and overtime. And senior guard Terrell Ellenwood-Jones, whose range begins once he crosses the border into Idaho, drained six 3-pointers in the second half for the Wildcats.

But he picked up his fourth foul midway through the third quarter. He came out — but just briefly — and started launching 3s.

Meanwhile, Lakeside star Vander Brown, the team’s lone senior and lone remaining player from its state 1A Division II title team of 2020, picked up his fourth not long after Jones did.

Two months earlier, Brown was in foul trouble in the first Lapwai game, and eventually fouled out.

This time …

“He always gets mad at me when I try to take him out — ‘Trust me, trust me,’” Twoteeth said. “I never trust him, and I take him out.”

This time Twoteeth let Brown stay in the game.

“As my coach expressed to me, it was very important that I stayed in the game,” Brown said.

Wynott picked up his third foul late in the third quarter, and, moments after Lapwai had tied the game at 54, was whistled for his fourth with some 5 minutes left.

At that point it was apparent that fouls, as well as points, were going to determine this game.

Lakeside junior Qwincy Hall fouled out with 1:17 left in regulation, and Charley fouled out with 13 seconds left.

Jones fouled out three seconds later — he had to, to prevent a breakaway basket that would have clinched the game for Lakeside.

But the Wildcats got the ball back down three, and Wynott was fouled shooting a 3-pointer, and hit all three with 1.7 seconds left to force overtime.

Lakeside usually only plays six guys, and now three of them were disqualified.

Corey Rivera, a seldom-used junior, came off the bench and contributed a key basket — on his only field goal attempt of the game — late in the game for the Knights.

“And I told those other guys — there’s going to be a time when we need you,” Twoteeth said.

Late in the overtime, junior reserve Blaze Callahan scooped up a loose ball, was fouled and added a key free throw for Lakeside.

Moments later, Lakeside's confident stunner was complete.

“We know that they’re a good team,” Lapwai coach Zachary Eastman said of Lakeside. “We gave them all the respect; it was a fair game. We beat them earlier in the season, but when it counted, they got the big one.”

HERE’S THE weird thing — Lakeside might enter next year as the favorite to repeat in 1A Division I.

Lapwai will lose three senior starters, including Jones, but the Wildcats will return Wynott and junior Ahlius Yearout. And Lapwai is ... well, Lapwai — though that talk that Lapwai should play Lake City to determine an overall Idaho state champion was just plain silly last week, and even sillier now.

Meanwhile, Lakeside loses “just” Brown — a big loss to be sure, but Twoteeth said the others tended to defer to the senior when he was on the court, and were more aggressive when he was off the floor. But he gave them a little of everything, some tangible, some intangible — defense, playmaking, confidence.

Four starters return, including Hall and point guard Brutis SiJohn, who will be a senior. And Charley and junior Liam Hendrickx each averaged in double figures this year, so the Knights will still have plenty of offensive firepower.

Twoteeth, who played as a junior on Lakeside’s only other state title-winning team, in 1997, is 96-29 in six seasons as coach at his alma mater, with two state titles and a third-place finish in 2021.

He said goodbye to a talented senior class a couple years back, and thought that might be it for him. And pretty much every year since, he says this might be his last season as coach.

“I’ve had him (Brown) for four years, and when I think I’m done, there’s always this one player … I’ve got to finish out with him,” Twoteeth said. “And now I have a good group around him (Brown), too … now I’ve got to keep going with them, because we only lose Vander. We’re going to have a good team next year.”

And after that …

“Then my son’s going to be in the eighth grade next year,” Twoteeth said. “I’ve got to stick around for him.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.