Clark Fork Happy To Chase Mullan Away
A-4 District I
The Clark Fork Wampus Cats will be able to breathe a little easier for the next few days as they prepare for the Idaho A-4 state tournament March 2-4 in Idaho Falls.
The reason? They know they won’t have to face the Mullan Tigers when the tournament opens at Bonneville High School.
The Wampus Cats, thanks to a quick start and some timely defense, held on to defeat the Tigers 56-50 to claim the A-4 District I title before 400 fans at Lakeland High School.
The top-seeded Cats and the No. 3-seeded Tigers had split two close games during the regular season (one in overtime), and a win by Mullan would have forced a second title game today.
The Wampus Cats apparently didn’t relish that thought.
Clark Fork (13-8) jumped out to an 11-4 lead and stretched that to 19-8 thanks to the inside play of Mike Gow.
The senior post had eight of his 11 points in the first quarter and helped the Wampus Cats to a 7-2 rebounding advantage.
Mullan coach John Drager pointed to the first quarter as a key.
“They beat us on the boards and they beat us inside,” Drager said. “I don’t feel we ever got into the flow of things.”
But the Tigers (9-12) refused to roll over and, after scoring the final four points of the quarter to cut their deficit to 19-12, spent the rest of the game clinging to the Cats.
Mullan stayed close thanks largely to the play of junior David Reed, who finished with 17 points to lead the Tigers.
Reed’s steal and resulting layup with 3:35 to play in the third quarter tied the score 33-33. Mullan took its first - and only - lead of the game 2 minutes later 37-36 when sophomore Al Sisk converted two free throws.
But Clark Fork scored the last six points of the quarter to reestablish a 42-37 advantage.
The game remained tight the rest of the way, and Mullan had its chances.
Forced to foul, the Tigers sent the Wampus Cats to the free-throw line where Clark Fork was able to convert on just three of six attempts.
But Mullan was doomed by poor shooting of its own down the stretch, hitting just 26 percent of its field goal attempts in the fourth quarter.
And Clark Fork point guard Matt Lamburth, who had a great tournament according to Wampus Cats coach Bird Nietmann, sealed the win with two free throws with 20 seconds remaining.
“Matt really picked it up in this tournament,” Nietmann said. “He’s a good ball handler, and he’s really cut down on his turnovers.”
Senior Jeremey Lizotte, who led a balanced Wampus Cats attack with 16 points, said the Cats were never really worried despite not being able to shake the Tigers.
“Our team is an overtime team,” Lizotte said as he watched his teammates celebrate their championship by cutting down the nets. “We know how to play at the end, so we were confident. The whole game, it seemed like we were just a step behind, so we picked our defense up at the end.”
Nietmann said the key was putting the skids on Mullan’s running game.
“I thought we controlled the tempo. We forced them to slow it down and they like to run and gun,” Nietmann said. “I thought we dominated the whole ball game and I don’t think people thought we’d win tonight. I think we’re playing our best ball right now.”
The Wampus Cats also got doublefigure scoring from Jason Stevens with 12, and Gow and J.T. Cheslic who had 11 each. Stevens pulled down nine rebounds.
In addition to Reed’s 17, Mullan got nine points from sophomore Dan Fritz and eight from senior Gregg Hammerberg.
Clark Fork 56, Mullan 50 Mullan 12 12 13 13 - 50 CF 19 9 14 14 - 56
M-G. Reed 5, Lindstrom 7, Fritz 9, G. Hammerberg 8, Sisk 2, L. Hammerberg 0, D. Reed 17, Jacobson 2. CF-Lamburth 6, Gow 11, Cheslic 11, Reuter 0, Lizotte 16, Stevens 12.