PREP BOYS BASKETBALL: Coeur d'Alene falls in Brown's interim opener

COEUR d’ALENE — As interim Coeur d’Alene boys basketball coach Arnold Brown put it, the Vikings are still trying to find their footing as the season winds to the finish. 

Junior Caden Symons hit a jumper to cut the deficit to 54-47 midway through the fourth quarter for the 6A Vikings before the 4A Bonners Ferry Badgers pulled away to hand Coeur d’Alene a 71-52 loss in Brown’s first game as interim coach. 

Brown, the former Shadle Park coach, was named interim coach on Wednesday after the school parted ways with Jon Adams in the middle of his fifth season. Adams had handled the offense, while Brown handled the defensive game plan. 

“We struggled a little bit offensively trying to fix some things in that short turnaround,” Brown said. “We didn’t execute very well, and they had something to do with it. (Bonners Ferry coach) Nathan (Williams) does a good job with those guys.” 

Bonners Ferry led 33-22 at halftime. 

“We want to play hard,” Brown said. “We’ve got a lot of emotions going on right now and felt that was part of it. We looked a little scrambled on defense and haven’t quite got it down yet. But we got our energy level up, where it wasn’t. They just had a couple of spurts where they shot it really well, and that’s credit to Nate for having them ready.” 

Asher Williams, bound for NAIA Montana Tech, scored 28 points for Bonners Ferry (18-0), which extended its win streak to 35 games. 

“We really prepared trying to defend Caden and Kai's (Wheeler) screen and roll,” Nathan Williams said. “It really frustrated me to see Kai with eight in the first half, so I harped about taking away his left and Caden had a great second half. We wanted to execute our stuff and they stopped some our basic sets, but our kids are really good and senior-heavy. They’ve played more basketball than any other team in this region and have a lot of games together.” 

Symons scored 17 points, Wheeler 11 and senior Stockton Montague 11 for Coeur d’Alene (8-9), which beat Lewiston 63-47 in its last game on Tuesday in Lewiston. 

“I watched Coeur d’Alene at Lewiston the other night, and felt the offensive boards could have killed us tonight,” Williams said. “We really just pounded those things. I’m just really proud of our kids. We had four kids that have been sick all week, so we just went over stuff mentally and Arnold did a good job and started pressing us, and I would have done the same thing.” 

Coeur d'Alene hosts Logos of Moscow on Tuesday.

Bonners Ferry    16    17    17    21    —    71 

Coeur d’Alene    11    10    19    13    —    52 

BONNERS FERRY — Blackmore 0, Rice 14, Hinthorn 9, Williams 28, Bateman 4, Cartwright 0, Abubakari 16. 

COEUR d’ALENE — McCall 0, Murray 2, Montague 11, Booth 0, Sutich 2, Riley 2, Wheeler 11, Stern 2, Symons 17, Robertson 5. 

Lewiston 71 

Lakeland 54 

LEWISTON — The Hawks trailed 35-24 at halftime, but getting outscored 22-11 in the third period did in the visitors in an Inland Empire League loss to the Bengals. 

Mason Hensley scored 21 points and had four assists for Lakeland (9-9, 2-5), which led Lewiston 10 days ago in Rathdrum, before the Bengals rallied for a one-point win. Gabe Harris added 13 points and seven rebounds for the Hawks, and Brayden Carrel had eight points and seven boards. 

Dray Torpey scored 22 points, Royce Fisher 16 for Lewiston (15-2, 4-1), which sits in the No. 1 position for the upcoming 5A Region 1 tournament. Lewiston hit 10 3-pointers. 

Lakeland plays host to Post Falls on Tuesday. 

Lakeland     14    10    11    19    —    54 

Lewiston     16    19    22    14    —    71 

LAKELAND — Hensley 21, Yager 3, Larcher 3, Roth 4, Hillman 2, Harris 13, Carrel 8. 

LEWISTON — Torpey 22, Fisher 16, Alldredge 0, Walker 5, Krasselt 6, Rudolph 8, Hepburn 5, Bogar 8, Way 1. 

Kellogg 51 

Grangeville 31 

KELLOGG — Brodie Robinson scored a team-high 13 points for the Wildcats in a Central Idaho League win over the Bulldogs at Andrews Gymnasium. 

Ty Cheney scored nine points for Kellogg (8-6, 3-2 CIL), which hosts Orofino tonight. 

Tate Thacker scored 13 points for Grangeville (4-11, 0-5). 

Grangeville    7    6    7    11    —    31 

Kellogg        9    16    14    12    —    51 

GRANGEVILLE — Astle 8, Schumacher 5, Thacker 13, Stamper 0, Told 3, Long 0, Smith 2. 

KELLOGG — Robinson 13, McDonald 2, Lewis 4, Honnerlaw 2, Cheney 9, Vindasius 0, Baker 2. 

Genesis Prep 68 

Bonners Ferry JV 34 

POST FALLS — Spencer Farrell scored 16 points, all in the first three quarters, as the host Jaguars rolled past the Badgers junior varsity at The Courts at Real Life. 

Gabe Meyer added 10 points for Genesis Prep (7-10). 

Jameson Cartwright-Kissee hit five 3-pointers and led the Bonners Ferry JV with 17 points. 

Genesis Prep travels to Upper Columbia Academy of Spangle, Wash., tonight. 

Bonners Ferry JV     12    4    5    13    6 —    34 

Genesis Prep     17    17    19    15    —    68 

BONNERS FERRY JV — Hiatt 3, Cartwright-Kissee 17, Buchanan 6, Stanger 4, Thompson 4. 

GENESIS PREP — Nichols 5, Tosh 7, Martin 4, S. Bateman 8, Earley 7, Meyer 10, I. Bateman 8, Farrell 16, Hunter 3, Swanson 0. 

Wallace 54 

Troy 48 

TROY — Cooper Miller and Julian Davis scored 16 each for the Miners in a nonleague win over the Trojans at Troy High. 

Emmitt Myles scored 10 points for Wallace (9-6), which visits Genesee today. 

Connor Wilson scored 18 points for Troy (3-8). 

Wallace        20    4    14    16    —    54 

Troy        12    11    20    5    —    48 

WALLACE — Miller 16, Davis 16, Guardipee 5, Larson 6, Myles 10, Williams 1. 

TROY — Moser 0, Paradise 0, Holden 5, Wilson 18, Buchanan 6, Durret 14, Mason 0. 

Coeur du Christ 65 

Mullan 24 

MULLAN – Junior Jerome Cools scored 18 of his game-high 20 points in the first half as the visiting Saints beat the Tigers in North Star League play at the Mullan Pavilion. 

Ben Connelly added 18 points, Grant Clemens 17 for Coeur du Christ (11-5, 3-0 NSL), which plays host to Wallace on Friday at Holy Family Catholic School in Coeur d’Alene. 

Colten Imes scored 11 points, Cael Sala 10 for Mullan (0-3 NSL). 

Coeur du Christ     24    13    20    8    --    65 

Mullan     3    8    6    7    --    24 

COEUR du CHRIST – Anderson 0, Ja. Cools 0, Clemens 17, Connelly 18, Clute 2, Hayes 8, Ja. Cools 20, Conaty 0. 

MULLAN – Sala 10, Imes 11, Calvert 0, Ullrich 0, Morgan 1, Bosson 2.