Lake City Hurries Past Taller Moscow

The Lake City High School boys basketball team prefers to play at a sprinting pace. Not breakneck, mind you, but quicker than the first-half tempo of its home opener Tuesday against taller Moscow.

Nearly all of Lake City’s baskets in the second half came in transition as the Timberwolves pulled away from the tree trunk-sized Bears 63-47 in a non-league game.

“The game was much too methodical (in the first half),” said LC coach Jim Winger, whose team evened its record at 2-2. “Our goal was to make it an uptempo game. That’s the worst that we’ve looked in the first half. The second half was like we’ve played the last three games - pretty good ball.”

A defensive switch at halftime also proved to be key. The T-Wolves played man-to-man the final two quarters, and guard Jerid Keefer was assigned to stop hot-shooting Moscow guard Adam Miller.

Miller scored 16 points in the first half. He was particularly deadly from 3-point range, where he made 4 of 6 attempts.

In the second half, however, Miller took just two shots (both 3-pointers) and was a non-factor.

Moscow coach Don Dudley thought his team’s poor play in the second half had more than an influence on the outcome than anything LC did.

“Pure and simple, we didn’t come to play in the second half,” said Dudley, whose Bears, considered a favorite to win the Intermountain League championship, slipped to 2-2. “They didn’t do anything scientific, that’s for sure. It was basic man (defense) and they executed their offense.”

After falling behind 10-3 3 minutes into the game, LC caught the Bears at 12-12 when Jon Chatfield made a 3-pointer. From that point, both teams played evenly the rest of the first half.

A putback by Chad Beadell put LC ahead 33-31 at halftime.

The T-Wolves opened the third quarter with a 15-4 run. Scott Hoover and Chatfield accounted for 13 of the 15 points. Chatfield finished with a game-high 23 points and nine rebounds; Hoover had 18 and eight.

Moscow never got any closer than 13 points in the fourth quarter. A 3-pointer by Mike Asper gave LC its widest lead, at 56-39, with 5:13 remaining.

Moscow’s 6-foot-10 post Jason Keep matched Miller’s 16 points.

The T-Wolves managed to outrebound Moscow 33-31 - a statistic that caused Dudley some grief.

“They beat us bad on the boards. They got a lot of offensive boards and scored inside a lot,” Dudley said. “If you do that, you’re going to beat people.”

The win was especially pleasing to Winger because he sees Moscow faring well in the IML. The Bears opened the season with a win over one of LC’s league rivals, Lewiston (53-52).

“That’s a good team. They’re going to do well,” Winger said. “(The win) wasn’t picture perfect, but it was a nice effort.”

Lake City 63, Moscow 47

Moscow 18 13 6 13 - 47

Lake City 16 17 17 13 - 63

MOSCOW Dudley 4, Strobel 0, Curtis 0, Miller 16, Petersen 3, Lathen 2, Z. Johnson 2, Stinebaugh 0, G. Johnson 0, Keep 16, Owen 4.

LAKE CITY Camantigue 0, Thompson 6, Keefer 5, Chatfield 23, Hoover 18, Beadell 2, Asper 5, Bryan 4, Everson 0, Bemis 0, Walker 0.

, DataTimes