Wallace waltzes to state

Wallace High girls basketball coach Kirby Krulitz gave his pregame speech and walked confidently out of the locker room Thursday.

Krulitz had just heard three words from his players that set him at ease. “They said ‘We are ready’,” the coach said.

And the Miners were right. They pounced on Kootenai from the get go and never relented as Wallace captured its second straight 1A District I championship, 72-45, at Lakeland High School.

Wallace (21-1) advances to state, which will begin a four-day run Wednesday in Nampa. The Miners open against District IV fourth-place finisher Raft River (15-8) at Skyview High School. Tipoff is at 5:15 PST.

Kootenai (16-6) and Clark Fork (8-13) meet Saturday at Lakeland to decide a second state berth. Game time is 6 p.m.

Clark Fork handled Lakeside (10-12) 43-25 in a loser-out opener Thursday.

Wallace 72, Kootenai 45: The Miners’ seventh consecutive win the past two years over the Warriors was arguably their best.

The Miners led 11-1 before Kootenai scored its first basket at the 2:27 mark. Then a 3-pointer by Lisa Carver and a jumper by Shala Wild pushed the advantage to 16-3.

Two free throws by Emily Frank got Kootenai within 26-15 with 4:35 to go before halftime. But Wallace closed out the quarter on a 13-0 run, and all that was left for the Warriors to do was to warm up the bus.

Kootenai coach Doug Naperala was impressed.

“I thought they came out pretty relaxed and confident, and they really laid it to us,” Naperala said. “They were really aggressive defensively. They came out ready to play.”

Several things hurt Kootenai in the first half. First, the Warriors committed 16 turnovers. Second, junior guard Cassie Scheffelmaier, the North Star League’s leading scorer at 14.1 points per game, got into foul trouble.

Eight different players scored for Wallace in the first half. But Krulitz was most pleased with the defense.

“I told them it was the best half of defense they’ve played this year,” Krulitz said. “Especially with the magnitude of this game.”

Scheffelmaier opened the second half as if she planned to single-handedly shoot her team back into contention. She scored her team’s first nine points. But the brief spurt was quickly diffused by the Miners.

Wallace post Krista Williams, one of four juniors who start, had a team-high 15 points to go with seven rebounds. Junior wing Lisa Carver had 14 points and eight rebounds and junior point guard Cara Hayman added 11 points, eight assists and seven steals.

“We really came to play,” Williams said. “You could tell it was in us. We played with heart.”

Hayman agreed.

“That’s by far the best half we’ve played, especially defensively,” Hayman said of the start. “They played close with us the last time we played, so we knew that they thought they could play with us. We had to come out and play our best and show confidence.”

Clark Fork 43, Lakeside 25: Freshman Bailey Hewitt led the Wampus Cats with 12 points and seven rebounds as Clark Fork was never threatened.

The Wampus Cats built a 24-11 lead by halftime, and they just added to the margin in the final two quarters.

Clark Fork senior Tiffany Van Buren had eight rebounds to go with nine points.