Chatfield Back In Style For Lc

Jon Chatfield’s return Thursday was nothing short of stellar. There was no rust in his stroke.

In fact, Chatfield probably had to ice his shooting limb after Lake City throttled Sandpoint 84-53 in an Inland Empire League basketball game that wasn’t that close.

With the victory, the Timberwolves clinched no worse than a tie for the league championship. LC needs just one win in its final two league games to earn the title outright.

What was as impressive as Chatfield’s play was his equally spectacular teammates.

“The thing that I’m most happy about this game is the play of the other guys,” said LC coach Jim Winger, whose team raised its overall record to 14-4, 6-0 in league. “I wanted them to keep playing like they’ve been playing (with Chatfield out) the past month. That’s the most exciting and positive thing I take out of the game. We definitely went up a notch.”

The 6-foot-3 Chatfield missed his first shot - a 10-foot jumper and the first attempt of the game. Apparently he was too close to the basket.

He proceeded to make four straight 3-pointers, his fourth widening LC’s lead to 22-7 with 2:16 left in the opening period.

Chatfield, who scored 21 points of his game-high 25 in the first half, added nine in the second quarter as he made 8 of 12 shots, including 5 of 7 3-pointers, in the first two periods.

“I was nervous before the game that it (his right foot) would start hurting again,” Chatfield said of the stress fracture. “But it feels good. That’s what is best about the whole thing. I was ready to go; it just felt like everything was dropping.

“I thought I’d do well. You sit there for five games and you get to focus three weeks on this game.”

Winger didn’t believe Chatfield would pick up where he left off.

“To be honest, I didn’t expect anything close to that,” Winger said. “What’s amazing is he hasn’t done anything in practice. We’ve kept him completely off his foot.”

Mike Asper - who had been starting in Chatfield’s absence but was on the bench where he admits he’s most comfortable at the start of the game - was hot from long range as well. Asper scored 17 points as he made 5 of 5 3-pointers. Scott Hoover added 14.

Playing what Winger called “the best half of basketball any of my teams have played,” LC used runs of 12-0 and 12-1 in the second quarter to take a 51-16 lead at halftime.

Asper’s final trey gave the T-Wolves their biggest lead at 70-27 with 29 seconds left in the third period.

None of LC’s starters played in the fourth quarter.

Sandpoint fell to 6-11, 1-4.

“We could have played a great game tonight and we’d still have got our butts kicked,” Sandpoint coach Jack Dyck said. “I was real disappointed in our intensity to start the game. We’re back to that deer-inthe-headlight thing that we go through on occasion.”

Dyck told his players to take a lesson from LC’s play.

“We need to look at how Lake City plays the game and that’s what we need to model ourselves after,” Dyck said. “There’s a reason why they continue to win. The reason why they continue to win is those kids play their butts off in every phase of the game all game long. That was a good lesson for our kids. I hate losing, but we’ve got to use this as a learning experience.”

LC, which extended its home winning streak to 13, visits Coeur d’Alene Saturday while Sandpoint entertains Lewiston.

Lake City 84, Sandpoint 53

Sandpoint 13 3 14 23 - 53 Lake City 27 24 19 14 - 84

SANDPOINT Jeffres 5, Bowman 10, Eller 3, Herrington 5, Palmer 8, Kleinert 7, Nieman 4, Knowles 1, Boeck 3, Boren 7.

LAKE CITY Camantigue 0, Chatfield 25, Hoover 14, Thompson 7, Keefer 0, Asper 17, Beadell 2, Everson 5, Walker 2, Barlow 5, Scharnhorst 0, Bemis 3, Bryan 4.

, DataTimes