Hawks fade after fast start
BOISE – This first impression didn’t last.
Lakeland couldn’t have started any faster as its press forced multiple turnovers en route to a quick nine-point lead. But the Hawks’ shooting went dry, their fouls kept mounting and Pocatello came back to grind out a 48-40 victory Thursday in the opening round of the State 4A girls basketball tournament at Timberline High School.
The Hawks (7-15) drop into a loser-out contest against Jerome (23-2), which lost to Bishop Kelly 46-45 in overtime, at 2 PST today. Lakeland will be trying to avoid a second straight 0-2 state tournament after seven consecutive trips in which it won at least one game. Skyline, which defeated Bonneville 54-46, and Middleton, a 57-29 winner over Hillcrest, meet in one semifinal. Pocatello (13-13) faces Bishop Kelly in the other semifinal.
“They called some timeouts and they responded a little bit,” Lakeland coach Steve Seymour said. “All of a sudden it was a six-point game, then four and then we’d lost the lead. You tend to think at a state tournament game there should be some give and take, but it was too much of a free-throw shooting practice for them.”
Lakeland dominated the first quarter, holding Pocatello without a field goal until the final 24 seconds. Camille Reynolds had nine of her 19 points in the first quarter and her second 3-pointer gave Lakeland a 13-4 lead.
Pocatello, which was winless two seasons ago, caught and passed the Hawks with a 13-0 run in the second quarter. After committing nine turnovers in the first quarter, the Indians finally got into the offensive flow, taking the lead on Andrea Beseris’ 3-pointer.
The Indians worked the ball inside for seven points in a 9-0 run to go in front 35-23 in the third quarter.
“I told them if we could make it through the first five minutes and the leg burn and all that, we’d be all right,” Pocatello coach Jeff Hough said. “We made it through the first 8 minutes and the leg burn and then we were OK.”
Meanwhile, Seymour told his team to keep battling.
“We didn’t get many bounces our way,” he said. “We kept telling them, ‘This quarter we’ll get some bounces.’ In the third quarter, it seemed like everything went to Pocatello. We got into foul trouble, which isn’t unusual territory for us. We need to be aggressive, but the fouls add up and that leads to points.”
Twenty-three, to be exact. Pocatello made 23 of 36 at the line to Lakeland’s 5 of 11. Both teams were cold from the field. Pocatello made 12 of 51 (23.5 percent). Lakeland was 16 of 62 (25.8 percent) and wasn’t able to use its full-court press as much because it couldn’t get shots to fall.
Lakeland’s frustration mounted as it missed a couple of shots from close range before Reynolds made a pair of buckets to narrow the Indians’ lead to 36-29 entering the fourth quarter. Reynolds connected from 23 feet to pull Lakeland with 36-32, but the Hawks endured another series of missed from point-blank range.
Pocatello protected a 44-38 lead by making 4 of 8 free throws.