Vikings Put It All Together, Stun Timberwolves, 73-58

Bruce Coppess’ 26-foot basket at the buzzer typified the Coeur d’Alene Vikings’ 73-58 upset Thursday over the Lake City Timberwolves.

The Vikings, playing their best game of the season after a 1-9 start, never trailed and did little wrong in the Inland Empire League boys basketball game played before a crowd estimated at 1,800 in Viking Gym.

The Timberwolves, coming off a huge league-opening 55-47 win over Post Falls last week, played one of their worst games since mid December.

If the first basketball game between the city rivals proved anything it’s anything can and probably will happen in this new rivalry.

CdA, which hadn’t won since a season-opening victory, evened its league record at 1-1. Third-ranked LC, 1-1, fell to 7-4 overall.

“Finally everything came together,” first-year CdA coach Larry Bieber said.

Bieber said he saw glimpses of the Viks’ potential in the previous 10 games. But his team didn’t put it together for four quarters until Thursday.

Trailing 15-7 after an intense first quarter, LC had one of its few spurts of good play when it ran off seven points to pull within one at 15-14.

But a 21-1 run by CdA in the final 6:24 of the second quarter gave the Viks what would prove to be an insurmountable 36-15 lead at halftime.

The Viks picked up where they left off in the opening moments of the third quarter. A 3-pointer by Ryan Corbeill and a free throw by Coppess gave CdA its biggest lead at 40-15 with 6:11 left in the period.

LC didn’t quit.

A strange seven-point series 3 minutes later helped the T-Wolves cut the lead to 16 (46-30). As Bryan Kelly got a breakaway layup, Viking Josh Davis was called for an intentional foul for pushing Kyle Miller from behind as they trailed the play.

Miller made both free throws and Kelly buried a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession. CdA held that margin at 16 (54-38) going into the fourth quarter.

A 7-0 spurt in the opening 2 minutes of the quarter pulled LC within 54-45.

Kelly cut the margin to 57-48 when he completed a three-point play at the 4:29 mark.

But CdA wouldn’t let the T-Wolves any closer.

CdA made 9 of 27 shots from 3-point range. Coppess led the Viks by hitting 4 of 8 treys for 14 points. Jesse Hoorelbeke (12), freshman Luke Adamen (12) and Chris Pederson (11) also joined Coppess in double figures.

Regan Wilson scored a game-high 19 points, 14 in the second half, to lead LC. Kelly added 15.

CdA did a superb job defending the league’s top scorer, Brian Russell (21 points per game). He scored seven points.

LC didn’t help itself from the free-throw line. The T-Wolves made just 16 of 36 attempts, 7 of 23 in the first half.

“The kids just played great,” Bieber said as he raced off to the locker room to join the celebration. “They played with great emotion. I’ve got to get in there (locker room) and say something to them.”

Coeur d’Alene 73, Lake City 58

Lake City 7 8 23 20 - 58 Coeur d’Alene 15 21 18 19 - 73

LAKE CITY Thompson 1, Kelly 15, Russell 7, Hoover 7, Wilson 19, Miller 7, Shaw 2, Keefer 0, Reiswig 0, Coyle 0, Brumley 0.

COEUR d’ALENE Adamen 12, Coppess 14, Clute 0, Corbeill 7, Hoorelbeke 12, Klassen 0, Hermstad 0, Pederson 11, Wild 2, Davis 6, Fink 9.

Girls basketball

Lewiston 49, Sandpoint 39

The Bengals, ranked No. 7 in the Idaho poll, executed their slowdown, controlled game plan to perfection against the No. 3-ranked Bulldogs.

“That’s exactly what we wanted to do,” Lewiston coach Pat Zink said. “We like to play aggressive and we like to get up the floor. We wanted to try and slow the tempo down and not give them any transition baskets.”

Guard Andrea Gomez led all Lewiston scorers with 13 points. Bloom added 10 points and eight rebounds.

Sandpoint junior post Alli Nieman scored a game-high 18 points, 13 coming in the first half.

Lewiston improved to 4-2 in league and 13-3 overall. Sandpoint (3-2, 12-4) returns to its home court tonight against top- ranked Lake City.

Lewiston 17 9 13 10 - 40 Sandpoint 13 8 4 14 - 39

LEWISTON Acord 3, Couch 3, Roberts 5, Wimer 0, Gomez 13, Cushman 9, McEachern 6, Bloom 10. SANDPOINT Raiha 8, Timblin 0, Verby 2, Ross 2, Ward 5, Allmaras 4, Nieman 18, Zirkle 0. Moscow 51, Kellogg 27

The Bears (7-0, 10-6) remained unbeaten in the Intermountain League, jumping out to a big lead early and coasting to a win over the second-place Wildcats (5-3, 9-7).

Moscow 14 4 17 16 - 51 Kellogg 4 8 5 10 - 27

MOSCOW Moslemi 3, Sorbel 14, Lemm 6, Gordon 2, Richards 0, Gibson 0, Wenny 10, Benson 4, Reynolds 6, Blyth 2, Mills 4.

KELLOGG Derbyshire 9, Lemon 7, Shiplett 2, Mercado 2, Hei 0, Rauenhorst 3, Lemieux 4, Delcomte 0.

Kootenai 42, Mullan 28

The homecourt advantage didn’t do much for the Tigers (1-4, 2-9) as the Warriors (1-4, 4-7) used a big free-throw advantage for their first North Star League win of the season.

Kootenai 8 16 10 8 - 42 Mullan 10 6 5 7 - 28

KOOTENAI Courtemanche 3, T.Kraack 9, Ausman 5, Flint 7, Hunter 8, L.Kraak 2, Damiano 8.

MULLAN Renteria 6, J.Flood 0, Kri.Elwood 0, Reed 5, M.Hegbloom 10, A.Hegbloom 0., Kat.Elwood 5, Wright 2.

Post Falls 56, Lakeland 39

The Trojans (6-10) broke open a tight game in the third quarter with an 18-7 run in the non-league win over the Hawks (2-11) at Post Falls.

Lakeland 12 9 7 11 - 39 Post Falls 11 13 18 14 - 56

LAKELAND Boone 0, Jamison 4, Wallace 9, Holt 0, Schaffer 2, Viebrock 24, Chiappe 0, Walker 0.

POST FALLS Byxbee 9, Goodwin 0, Shan. Olson 2, Shaw. Olson 0, Sheppard 19, Stutzke 0, Umthun 21, Thompson 2, Beatty 2, Waltz 0, Klaudt 1, Glaser 0.