Lakeside Rebounds For Victory

Lakeside didn’t try to make any radical changes at halftime, Knights coach Ron Miller merely asked his girls basketball team to rebound.

And blocking out rallied Lakeside past Clark Fork 45-38 in a key North Star League matchup Tuesday night.

The win gives the Knights the inside track on the NSL title, as Lakeside improved to 6-1 in league and 9-10 overall.

Clark Fork slipped to 4-2 and 10-6.

Lakeside returns to its home court Thursday to close out league play against Kootenai. The Wampus Cats put a wrap on the regular season at home against Falls Christian on Thursday and Mullan on Saturday.

“If we can finish Thursday (with a win), we will be the No. 1 (district tournament) seed, and we’d have to be beat twice,” Miller said of the tournament format. “In the North Star (League), there’s a reward for winning your league. I like that.”

Both teams came out tight in the first quarter, with Clark Fork using free throws from guard Amy Longstreet to forge a 7-6 lead, as neither team scored in the last 2:15 of the period.

The Knights sputtered offensively in the last 4:20 of the second quarter, being outscored 12-2, with the Wampus Cats picking up 10 of those points off Lakeside turnovers.

Junior post Hailey Scofield’s offensive putback as the half expired left Clark Fork up 21-16.

“We talked about rebounding at halftime,” Miller said. “We felt over a third of their points came from offensive rebounds.

“We adjusted the way we were going to cover some people on the backside, and they weren’t getting two and three shots anymore, at least not consistently.”

At the half, the Wampus Cats held an 18-10 rebound edge. By the game’s end, both teams had collected 29 rebounds, although the Knights outrebounded Clark Fork 17-13 on the offensive glass, including 12-3 in the second half.

“We weren’t rebounding in the second half like the first half,” Wampus Cats coach Mark Stevens admitted. “It’s a tough loss for us.

“We got out of our game plan in the second half. We just stopped running what was working for us.”

The Knights went to an extended 2-3 zone defense, and sophomore forward Margaret SiJohn crashed the boards hard for nine of her game-high 12 rebounds.

SiJohn added 14 of her gamehigh 18 points in the second half, including scoring the Knights’ last eight points of the third quarter. SiJohn’s putback 2 seconds before the quarter marked the 12th lead change of the game, and put Lakeside in front for keeps.

SiJohn stole the ball and dropped it in for a 33-30 lead with 7:17 to go in the game.

Reserve Harmony Hammons’ rebound basket at 6:03, followed by SiJohn’s basket off a pressbreaker play at 5:40 extended the Lakeside lead to 39-32.

Miller used a time out with 2:39 remaining to settle the Knights down offensively, asking his team to take 15, 20 to 25 seconds off the clock each trip down the floor.

“One of the things we’re working on is becoming a better fourth quarter team,” Miller said, alluding to the Wampus Cats 41-32 victory a month ago. Lakeside squandered a 10-point lead in that game, as Clark Fork went on a 20-2 fourth-quarter scoring spree.

Lakeside shot 40 percent from the field, with Nieburh adding 10 points and five steals.

Scofield’s 13 points, 10 rebounds and four steals topped Clark Fork. Longstreet matched those 13 points.

Lakeside 48, Clark Fork 38

Clark Fork 7 14 9 8 - 38 Lakeside 6 10 15 14 - 45

Clark Fork - Royster 8, Haller 0, Longstreet 13, Storaasli 2, Scofield 13, McAllister 2, Worcester 0.

Lakeside - Paulson 4, SiJohn 18, McFadden 7, Ward 0, Niebuhr 10, Brand 0, Hammons 6.