Bengals Hold Off Trojans No. 3-Seed Lewiston Takes On No. 1 Lake City On Friday

The Lewiston Bengals found a lead floating in a second-quarter sea of turnovers Wednesday.

Lewiston made it stand for a 40-37 victory over the Post Falls Trojans in an A-1 Region I girls basketball tournament opener at Post Falls.

The Bengals (10-11) were able to pull ahead by outscoring the Trojans 13-4 in the second quarter despite committing seven turnovers.

Rachelle Gill put in more than half the Bengals’ second-quarter points, scoring seven on 3-of-4 shooting from the floor including a 3-pointer.

“Gill’s points gave us huge momentum when she moved (to point guard),” said Bengals coach Pat Zink. “This was huge for our confidence.”

Lorien Albright added two baskets in the quarter to help pad the Bengals’ hot-shooting first half from the field (8 of 16) as Lewiston built an 18-13 halftime lead.

The third-seeded Bengals will meet unbeaten and No. 1 seed Lake City (21-0) Friday when the tournament continues at Lake City. The contest starts at 7:45 p.m., following a loser-out preliminary between CdA (8-14) and Post Falls (14-7) at 6.

“We are going to have to play a perfect ballgame against Lake City,” Zink said. “(We) have been the second seed the last two years and we’ve been knocked off. We haven’t played our best ballgame yet this year.”

The Trojans rallied in the third quarter as their full-court press caused the Bengals to commit 11 turnovers. Post Falls’ Carmi Eberle made two foul shots to tie the score at 25 going into the fourth.

The Bengals third-quarter fouling put the Trojans at the line seven times, and Post Falls converted six to gain momentum.

An unanswered 10-point burst in the fourth allowed the Bengals to open a 37-27 lead. Lewiston made 6 of 9 field-goal attempts in the period.

“(We) lost to Lewiston last year and came back and beat them in Lewiston,” said Post Falls coach Chris Johnson. “We’ve been there before and I hope we can do it again.”

Lewiston 40, Post Falls 37

Lewiston 5 13 7 15 - 40

Post Falls 9 4 12 12 - 37

LEWISTON - Gill 7, Zobel 0, Scharnhorst 0, Sullivan 5, Albright 8, Roberts 0, Boling 0, Wegner 13, Bausch 2, Ostheller 5, Presnell 0.

POST FALLS - Eberle 11, Billetz 7, Mills 0, Brown 0, Foster 0, Edmonds 0, Holland 1, Swanstrom 0, Ruen 12, Johnson 6.

, DataTimes