Lc Tops Spunky Vikings Top-Ranked Timberwolves Find Cda Much Improved

You wouldn’t have known that the Coeur d’Alene High School girls basketball team suffered its 20th straight loss to an Inland Empire League team since a second school opened in the city.

Seasoned talent easily prevailed over youth Tuesday, but freshman-laden Coeur d’Alene didn’t budge an inch against top-ranked Lake City.

Lake City’s Timberwolves opened an early lead then cruised past the Vikings, their intracity rival, 68-46 in Viking Gym.

LC moved to 13-2 overall, 3-0 in league. CdA fell to 4-11 and 0-3.

The Viks are 0-18 in league games since the split. Tuesday, though, CdA gave the best account of itself against the program it’s measured against.

LC coach Dave Stockwell had nothing but praise for the Vikings, who started three freshmen.

“They’re getting better all the time,” Stockwell said. “Coeur d’Alene played really hard. I thought they did a nice job. They scored a lot of points against us. Their young kids are fearless. They don’t back down.”

CdA coach Sheila Sharp, who took on a major rebuilding program when the school split, was just as pleased as if the Viks had won.

“We feel good about this one,” she said. “We saw some good things. They’re the No. 1 team in the state and that’s why I’m so pleased with the way we played. If nothing else, we may have gained some respect.”

The Timberwolves didn’t have any trouble, mind you. A 3-pointer by sophomore Laura Dodge and a put-back by Kelley McCabe in the final minute of the first quarter gave LC a 17-5 lead.

And the lead remained in double digits thereafter.

It was Dodge’s shooting that helped Lake City build a 37-16 lead by halftime. Dodge scored all 12 of her points in the first half on 5-of-7 shooting, including two 3s.

CdA closed the gap to 17 points at 40-23 two minutes into the third quarter, but a 16-4 finish to the quarter by LC widened the bulge.

LC’s Lindsay Herbert scored for a third time on an alley-oop pass from point guard Katie Hatrock early in the final period to give the T-Wolves their biggest lead at 60-27.

The Viks didn’t quit, though. Although playing against LC’s bench the final 6 minutes, CdA outscored the T-Wolves 19-8 to finish strong.

“I’m happy, we got to play a lot of kids and we had some good contributions from everybody,” Stockwell said. “We had a chance to work on some things that we’ve been putting in. It was nice to be able to call a play and have the confidence that it was going to work.”

Herbert led LC with 18 points. Alison Asher matched Dodge with 12.

The most obvious area of improvement for the Viks was ballhandling against LC’s full-court pressure. In fact, CdA committed 16 turnovers, two less than LC.

“We handled their press well and we penetrated against their press which a lot of teams have trouble doing,” Sharp said.

Sophomore Kellie Stern led Coeur d’Alene with 15 points.

Although CdA has improved drastically against LC, Sharp also kept the effort in perspective.

“(LC’s) starting five is extremely good and Lindsay Herbert is the best player in the state without a doubt,” Sharp said. “They complement each other well.”

Lake City 68, Coeur d’Alene 46

Lake City 17 20 19 12 - 68 Coeur d’Alene 5 11 11 19 - 46

Lake City - Hatrock 7, Hayes 0, Hawn 2, Herbert 18, Dodge 12, Asher 12, Cole 2, Nimke 4, McCabe 9, Gerzina 2.

Coeur d’Alene - Orr 7, Cultra 6, Stranger 4, Vig 3, Stern 15, Andre 2, Shirley 7, Tatum 2, Bradbury 0.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo