Wv Beats Lake City In Battle Of 3-Pointers
Jim Winger of Lake City and Joe Feist of West Valley goofed.
The two boys basketball coaches scheduled too tough of a game for their season openers.
For Feist and the Eagles, it worked out. Using long-range shooting to open a late lead and deadly foul shooting to protect it, West Valley edged the Timberwolves 86-79 at WV Friday night.
For Winger and the Timberwolves, ranked second in the pre-season Idaho A-1 poll, it didn’t.
Lake City matched WV bomb for bomb - each had 11 3-pointers - but the second-half advantage it enjoyed on the boards was offset by poor foul shooting.
Still, both coaches were satisfied.
“That was a fun game,” Feist said. “I was really pleased with our kids. We’re so young, I’m a little surprised how we competed down the stretch.”
Lake City took it’s last lead, 56-54, early in the fourth quarter when Jerid Keefer hit a 3 from the right corner. Then Austin Gerrells hit one and Josh Sweet hit two, putting WV up 63-56.
WV’s next two buckets were NBA-range 3-pointers by David Schillinger, making it 69-63 with 2:36 left and forcing Lake City to foul. The Eagles, just 1 of 6 from the line in the first three quarters, hit their first nine and 13 of 16 in the final 2:15 to seal the win.
“They really shoot the ball from way out,” Winger said. “We gave up 86 points and I didn’t think our defense was that bad.”
Jon Chatfield, a transfer from Kootenai, pumped in 30 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Timberwolves. Lake City had a 43-29 edge in rebounding, including 24-11 in the second half, but only hit 13 of 25 free throws, going 9 for 19 in the second half.
The free-throw shooting in the third quarter was critical. West Valley led 35-33 at the half, but on five of the Eagles’ first six fouls, they sent the Timberwolves to the line. LC only made 5 of 10. Schillinger picked up his fourth foul during that stretch and took his 19 points to the bench with WV ahead 47-43 with 3:23 to play in the quarter.
WV led 52-50 entering the fourth quarter and had five juniors on the floor against the all-senior Timberwolves when the 3s started raining.
Schillinger picked up his fourth foul with 3:23 left in the third and missed 6 minutes, but came back to launch his missiles and made 6 for 6 from the line to finish with 31 points, including seven 3s.
“We’ve seen him before,” Winger said. “You can’t get too tight because he’s a tremendous penetrator, but when he’s 4 or 5 feet back, what do you do?”
Sweet added 23 points, hitting four 3s; Gerrells had 20 with two 3s.
“When David picked up his fourth foul, we played five juniors and they held together,” Feist said. “It’s nice to see. Right now I’m enjoying the fact they’re trying hard and listening.”
West Valley 86, Lake City 79
Lake City 16 17 17 29 - 79
West Valley 17 18 17 34 - 86
LC - Thompson 1, Everson 0, Keefer 9, Bemis 2, Chatfield 30, Hoover 15, Bryan 15, Beadell 13, Asper 9. WV - Schillinger 31, Sweet 23, Whitney 0, Wascenske 0, Mortensen 2, Schroder 0, Gerrells 20, Bonner 2, Pecht 8.
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