Two Lukes No Flukes For Cda
Two Lukes are better than one when it comes to the Coeur d’Alene boys basketball team.
The Vikings parlayed 38 combined points from sophomore post Luke O’Dowd and senior forward Luke Lee into a 59-50 victory over Sandpoint on Friday night.
Coeur d’Alene’s win forced a coin toss to settle the Inland Empire League’s No. 4 and No. 5 seeding for this week’s A-1 Region I-II Tournament.
And the Vikings lost that coin toss, which sends Coeur d’Alene (8-12, 2-6) to Sandpoint (7-13, 2-6) on Tuesday in a loser-out playoff game.
“It’s hard to beat a team twice, then again we’ve established we can take the ball inside,” Vikings coach Larry Bieber said.
Two weeks ago, Sandpoint survived 81-79 in double-overtime at home against Coeur d’Alene.
“The two Lukes came to play tonight,” Bieber said. “Our outside game was a little weak today, but our inside game is what got us there; that and the kids ran the delay and finally made their free throws.”
The Vikings took the lead for keeps with 19 seconds to go in the first quarter off a 3-point field goal by senior Josh Davis.
But Coeur d’Alene could never put the Bulldogs away.
O’Dowd and Lee teamed for 22 first-half Vikings points, as Coeur d’Alene led 28-24.
“The first half we played man (defense) and they hurt us inside,” Sandpoint coach Jack Dyck said. “They’re big and they played well.”
Sandpoint stayed close behind the 10-point, five-rebound effort of sophomore post Stefon Kleinert, who finished with a team-high 14 points and seven rebounds.
The Bulldogs chipped away at a six-point deficit to start the fourth quarter.
Junior Steven Palmer claimed inside rebound position on O’Dowd with 5:12 remaining, drawing O’Dowd’s fourth foul and more importantly Coeur d’Alene’s 10th team foul.
Palmer sank both free throws to pull Sandpoint to within 41-39, but the Vikings converted back-to-back steals from Erik Hermstad into baskets and a 45-39 lead with 4:04 left.
The Bulldogs called a timeout, after which Coeur d’Alene went into its delay offense.
“Two bad passes and two turnovers again hurt us,” Dyck said. “All year we’ve turned the ball over at inopportune times.”
The teams shot 38 free throws in the fourth quarter, with Coeur d’Alene making 13-of-23 attempts. Sandpoint hit 10 of 15.
Coeur d’Alene 59, Sandpoint 50
Sandpoint 11 13 8 18 - 50
Coeur d’Alene 14 14 10 21 - 59
SANDPOINTBoeuk 0, Jeffres 9, Bowman 0, Eller 9, Boren 0, Herrington 3, Palmer 9, Kleinert 14, Nieman 6.
COEUR d’ALENEGoodwin 0, J. Davis 4, Lowry 3, Corbeill 6, Lee 12, B. Davis 3, Hermstad 5, Kovatch 4, O’Dowd 22, Hoorelbeke 0.
, DataTimes