Centennial easily handles listless LC

Lake City High girls basketball coach Darren Taylor knew coming into the season it would take time for his young team to find its stride.

But for most of his team’s 56-38 loss to third-ranked Centennial at Lake City on Saturday morning, Taylor thought his team regressed.

So when the Timberwolves show up for practice Monday, they may very well find themselves back to square one.

“That was a clinic on basketball by Emery Roy,” Taylor said of Centennial’s veteran coach, whose Patriots have won four state titles in 18 years. “Our young girls had no answer. Our halfcourt offense had no movement, no passing, no structure. It’s almost like Monday we’ve got to get back to the drawing board. It was a very disappointing day.”

Centennial, by contrast, takes much confidence from a two-game sweep this weekend after the Patriots rallied from a 13-point deficit to trip Coeur d’Alene 43-40 on Friday. Roy said it’s the first time one of his Patriots teams has pulled off a sweep in about 10 trips north.

Unlike Friday when they fell behind 11-0, the Pats got out much faster Saturday morning. A 7-2 spurt to close the first quarter gave Centennial an 18-8 lead.

The roof caved in for the T-Wolves (2-2) in the second quarter. Centennial held LC scoreless until junior guard Richelle Fenenbock hit a driving basket in the key with 15 seconds left before halftime after a 15-0 run had given the Pats a 33-8 lead.

Taylor must have known a collapse was imminent when his team had to call a timeout to avoid a turnover when it couldn’t make a simple inbounds pass to open the quarter.

“In the second quarter after three timeouts … I didn’t have anything else to say,” Taylor said. “We had absolutely no leadership.”

Taylor was a little dumbfounded, especially with his team coming off a 51-45 win the night before over Eagle.

“We played really well last night, and we ran our halfcourt offense,” he said. “I think Eagle runs better pressure (defense) than Centennial. So I don’t know what happened today. We just lost our focus and maybe even gave up a little bit in the second quarter.”

A bright spot for LC came in the third quarter when Fenenbock capped a 12-4 start with a 3-pointer, cutting the lead to 37-22 with 3 minutes left in the period. But the Pats used a 10-0 run to close the third quarter, and Centennial’s biggest lead came when Amy Briggs hit a 3-pointer for a 51-25 lead early in the fourth period.

Centennial is picked to finish third in the Southern Idaho Conference behind current No. 1-ranked Boise and second-rated Borah. Roy expects the SIC to be filled with hotly contested games.

“All the schools are a little better this year,” Roy said. “The top six (out of eight) are going to be pretty tough.”

Taylor told his team afterward that there’s no need to panic. LC has six practices before it opens Inland Empire League play Nov. 29 at Post Falls.

“We have lots of things to fix,” Taylor said.

“They’re going to be OK,” Roy said of the T-Wolves. “When they had some open shots they hit them. But we just didn’t give them many.”

Fenenbock had a game-high 19 points. Teammate Riki Moreland led with nine rebounds.