PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: Vikings use 'D' to stop Trojans

 COEUR d’ALENE — Three days after they scored 72 points in a 14-point victory, the points came much harder for the Post Falls Trojans on Friday night.

The Coeur d’Alene Vikings made sure of that.

Challenging everything at the rim, and hounding everyone on the perimeter, Coeur d’Alene held Post Falls to 12-of-40 shooting from the field in a 59-30 Inland Empire League victory Friday night at Viking Court.

“We looked at our matchups; we know that we have size in our guards, compared to their guards,” Coeur d’Alene coach Jon Adams said. “We thought we could take advantage of that, getting our guards into the lane. But offensively, in the first quarter we weren’t moving the ball well, we still were taking bad shots. But, it is really good to see us win defensively. That is a very good team, that’s been very potent. To be able to hold them to 30, I’m very proud of the guys, because there are nights when we’re not going to be hitting … so, can we defensively lock in like we did?”

Much of league-leading Coeur d’Alene’s (13-3, 4-0 IEL) offense came from sophomore Caden Symons, who scored 16 of his game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter. Adams noted the two 3-pointers Symons made in the fourth quarter, part of his nine points in the quarter, were “daggers.”

Mostly, the Vikings worked the ball inside, and finished 22 of 38 from the field, including 18 of 27 from inside the arc.

Not only did Coeur d’Alene’s defense make it rough on Post Falls, the Vikings shared the ball, and nine players scored.

“Gunner Larson is probably our best on-ball defender,” Adams said. “Logan’s probably our best overall defender, but Gunner is such a shutdown defender, and he just gave Neil (McCarthy) fits. 

Alex Shields led second-place Post Falls (11-5, 3-2) with eight points. McCarthy finished with five.

“If you don’t make shots, you have to give credit to the defense,” Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. “It seemed like we missed a lot of shots that we typically make, but credit to them. Obviously they’ve got length; Logan (Orchard) anticipated well when he came over to contest. Caden Symons played very well defensively, doing the same thing, anticipating. Their timing was good; when our kids would catch the ball around the basket, they were meeting us at the apex of that shot, and just contesting it.”

Post Falls’ home game today with Baker of Baker City, Ore., was canceled due to poor road conditions in Oregon. The Trojans’ next scheduled game is Thursday at home vs. Coeur d’Alene.

Coeur d’Alene plays host to Lake City on Monday.

Post Falls    8    4    8    10    —    30

Coeur d’Alene     11    15    15    18    —    59

POST FALLS — Lysne 0, McLean 0, McCarthy 5, Cameron 0, McKeown 2, Carver 4, Blake 2, Shields 8, Bowie 7. 

COEUR d’ALENE — Larson 5, Orchard 7, Rupp 11, Nipp 3, Entzi 4, Riley 2, Wheeler 5, Robertson 2, Symons 20.

Lake City 69

Lewiston 42

COEUR d’ALENE — Senior Bradyn Arrieta hit three 3-pointers for the Timberwolves in a 23-point first quarter of an Inland Empire League win over the Bengals at Lake City High.

“We shot the ball really well to start the game,” Lake City coach James Anderson said. “We played with more urgency in general. We’ve had a few games where we didn’t start as well as we’d like, but Bradyn really got us going early. It was better than we’d started in a while.”

Junior Reese Strawn hit four 3-pointers in the third, finishing with 25 points for Lake City (9-6, 1-2 IEL), which travels to Coeur d’Alene on Monday.

“Reese was outstanding in his decision making tonight,” Anderson said. “It was probably the best game I’ve seen him play.”

Drew Hottinger scored 16 points for Lewiston (9-6, 3-3).

Lewiston    11    17    5    9    —    42

Lake City    23    14    29    3    —    69

LEWISTON — Gomez 6, Bramlet 13, Alldredge 0, Walker 3, Fisher 2, Torpey 0, Bogar 2, Hottinger 16, Hepburn 0.

LAKE CITY — Parker 5, Winey 3, Strawn 25, Miller 10, Bowman 0, Watson 8, Kloos 0, Arrieta 14, Hill 0, Williams 2, Meredith 0, Carlson 2.

Lakeland 67

Sandpoint 58

RATHDRUM — It wasn’t the goal at first, but when it worked, the Hawks stuck to it.

Junior Mason Hensley and senior Kenton Ferguson combined to score 17 of the Hawks' 23 third-quarter points as Lakeland rallied for an Inland Empire League win over the Bulldogs at Hawk Court in the Battle for the Paddle spirit game.

“We did a good job of getting to the basket tonight,” said Lakeland coach Tony Hanna, whose team finished 17 of 27 from the free-throw line. “I felt our offense was a little stagnant in the first half, and we were fortunate to get them into some foul trouble in the first half. We just kept trying to attack the rim as much as we could and both Mason and Kenton did a good job of pushing the pace.”

Following the game, Lakeland won the Paddle for the sixth straight year.

Hensley and Ferguson scored 16 points each for Lakeland (9-5, 1-2 IEL), which travels to Moscow next Friday.

Junior Emerik Jones scored 15 of his 22 points in the first half for Sandpoint (7-9, 1-4).

“He’s one of their better scorers, so I challenged our guys to get the ball out of his hands at halftime,” Hanna said of Jones. “That was really the biggest difference in the second half.”

Sandpoint    19    13    12    14    —    58

Lakeland    17    11    23    16    —    67

SANDPOINT — Leavitt 2, Williams 3, Chamberlain 4, Leisy 5, Roos 18, Gion 0, Childs 4, Jones 22.

LAKELAND — Norce 1, Hensley 16, Ferguson 16, Ryan 7, Varner 0, Weil 3, Roth 10, Hillman 5, Carrell 0, Harris 9.

Kellogg 49

Grangeville 33

KELLOGG — Senior Blake Coburn and sophomore Draeden Taylor scored 13 points each for the Wildcats in a Central Idaho League win over the Bulldogs at Andrews Gymnasium.

“We saw some stuff on film that was effective in getting us into the game,” said Kellogg coach Mike Martin, whose team fell at Grangeville 52-47 after trailing by 20 in the first half of that game. “We brought the right amount of urgency tonight. This was the most we’ve been able to turn our defense into offense, and that really set the tone for us tonight.”

Kellogg senior Reid Whatcott hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter for Kellogg (5-8, 2-2 CIL), which hosts Moscow today at 2:30 p.m.

Sam Lindsley scored 11 points for Grangeville (2-7, 2-2).

Grangeville    8    9    10    6    —    33

Kellogg    10    13    8    18    —    49

GRANGEVILLE — Legaretta 5, Thacker 0, Bransford 4, Sickels 7, Klement 6, Lindsley 11, Spencer 0, Smith 0, Ebert 0.

KELLOGG — Robinson 8, Whatcott 8, Coburn 13, Taylor 13, Blalack 0, Fields 0, Lewis 5, McDonald 2, Garry 0, Cheney 0, Vindasius 0, Honnerlaw 0.

Genesis Prep 71

Clark Fork 59

POST FALLS — After going scoreless in Tuesday’s Scenic Idaho Conference game against Lakeside, Genesis Prep junior Spencer Farrell was set to bounce back.

Farrell hit six 3-pointers, scoring 10 points in the first and fourth quarter for the Jaguars in a nonleague win over the Wampus Cats at The Courts at Real Life.

“Spencer was just focused and ready to play,” Genesis Prep coach Lon Morast said. “Our last game, he didn’t play great, so he was eager to show his talents.”

Junior Dylan Tosh scored 19 points for Genesis Prep (5-8), which travels to St. Maries today at 4:30 p.m.

“We made the extra pass and were more aggressive both offensively and defensively,” Morast said. “In the second half, we did a much better job of getting rebounds.”

Senior Ethan Howard scored 12 points for Clark Fork (5-3), which hosts Wallace on Thursday.

Clark Fork    14    20    15    10    —    59

Genesis Prep    23    11    19    18    —    71

CLARK FORK — W. Caven 9, Montgomery 9, Ch. Sanroman 2, Co. Sanroman 10, E. Howard 12, O. Howard 5, S. Caven 10, Christofferson 2.

GENESIS PREP — Farrell 29, Nichols 2, Tosh 19, Martin 2, Bateman 4, Rubert 6, Meyer 3, Stewart 2, Blood 4, Earley 0, Gintz 0.

Spokane C.C. 49

Christian Center 46

SPOKANE VALLEY — Senior Colton Smith had 24 points, seven rebounds and three steals for the Lions in a Mountain Christian League loss to the Knights at The Oaks.

Michael Marshall had nine points, seven rebounds and three steals for Christian Center (7-6, 5-5 MCL), which faces Country Christian of Pasco, Wash., today at The Courts at Real Life in Post Falls.

Justus Piazza scored 16 points for Spokane Classical Christian (8-6, 6-4).

Christian Center    13    19    4    10    —    46

Spo. Class. Christ.    12    15    7    15    —    49

CHRISTIAN CENTER — Jones 9, Tesky 0, Smith 24, McWhorter 2, Cotten 0, Marshall 9, Mametiff 2, Paulson 0, Siers 0.

SPOKANE CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN — Fowlkes 8, Ott 5, Avdeyev 0, McGwire 10, Kapelac 0, S. Timme 10, Piazza 16.

    JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Lakeland senior guard Kenton Ferguson shoots a 3-pointer during Friday's Battle for the Paddle spirit game against Sandpoint at Hawk Court in Rathdrum.