Cda Survives Scare From Sandpoint

Six points shouldn’t separate second place from last place in Inland Empire League boys basketball.

But don’t tell the Sandpoint Bulldogs, who held out hopes of pulling off an upset over the Coeur d’Alene Vikings in the waning seconds of a contest that probably should have been decided much earlier.

Coeur d’Alene finally made enough free throws to hold off Sandpoint, 68-62, Thursday at Viking Gym.

Sandpoint (6-10 overall, 0-4 in IEL) never pulled closer than five points in the final 3 minutes. Still, the Vikings were never completely comfortable until Jim Rupp made two free throws with 33 seconds left for a 67-60 lead.

“We just let them hang around, hang around,” said CdA coach Larry Bieber, whose club improved to 10-3 and stayed close to league-leading Post Falls (3-0) at 3-1. “Our problem was we just didn’t play defense in the second half.”

A 15-2 Viks run in the first quarter gave CdA a 19-10 lead after 8 minutes. They pushed the margin to 15 in the second before taking a 40-26 lead into halftime.

In the third quarter, Sandpoint never cut CdA’s lead to less than 10. Two free throws by Ben Davis with 15 seconds left in the period extended CdA’s lead to 50-38.

But the Bulldogs didn’t quit. And when the Viks went cold from the perimeter Sandpoint pulled closer.

A 19-foot jumper by David Boren capped a 12-2 Sandpoint run that trimmed CdA’s lead to 54-50 with 4:11 left. CdA’s Eddie Gibbs quickly stopped Sandpoint’s spurt when he drove baseline for a reverse layup.

Sandpoint, victims of its own miscues in the final minutes, wouldn’t get any closer.

Rupp and Lukas O’Dowd led CdA with 16 points each. Sandpoint’s Stephen Palmer scored a game-high 20.

“It’s a league win, that’s what’s important,” Bieber said. “They (the Bulldogs) played with some heart, and they haven’t been doing that. They’ve got as much talent as anybody in the league. If they ever learn to play together they’ll be trouble.”

Sandpoint coach Jack Dyck agreed that his team played much more inspired.

“We played with more heart but not enough,” said Dyck, who earlier this week announced his resignation, effective at season’s end. “I just told the kids that we’re moving in the right direction. Now we can go to practice and make some corrections in terms of functional X’s and O’s.”

Coeur d’Alene 68, Sandpoint 62

Sandpoint 10 16 12 22 - 62

Coeur d’Alene 19 21 10 18 - 68

Sandpoint - Jeffres 13, Bowman 9, Herrington 7, Palmer 20, Kleinert 3, Gehring 6, Nieman 0, Boren 2, Eller 2.

Coeur d’Alene - O’Dowd 16, Gibbs 12, Kovatch 2, Hoorelbeke 10, Wood 5, Rupp 16, Davis 7, Sigler 0.

NON-LEAGUE

LC JV 79, Clark Fork 74 (2OT)

Chad Bramlet scored 37 points in LC’s victory. Despite a combined 48 points from Jason Stevens and Nate Stutzke, the Wampus Cats (6-7) fell to the visiting Timberwolves junior varsity in two overtimes.

LC JV 13 21 9 14 10 12 - 79

Clark Fork 18 11 15 12 10 7 - 74

LAKE CITY JV Bramlet 37, Bemis 2, Clark 14, Everson 6, Keefer 6, Schuh 12, Troxze 2.

CLARK FORK Beers 11, Higgins 11, Klontz 0, Powell 2, B.Stevens 2, J.Stevens 27, Stutzke 21.

, DataTimes