West Valley Silences Cda With Strong Second Half

Boys’ basketball

Coeur d’Alene boys basketball coach Larry Bieber requested a favor of West Valley counterpart Joe Feist prior to Tuesday’s game.

“I asked Joe, ‘Would you guys mind dressing in Lake City uniforms for us?”’ mused Bieber, who was hoping his struggling Vikings would summon an effort to duplicate their stunning upset of Lake City earlier this month.

Bieber got it for a half, but West Valley silenced the Vikings’ upset notions with a suffocating defensive effort in the second half en route to a 70-54 non-conference win at Viking Gym.

CdA (2-12 overall) saw a 34-27 halftime lead evaporate when West Valley turned up the defensive pressure on the perimeter. Viking turnovers often led to West Valley layups or open jumpers.

The Eagles (14-2) went in front 50-44 after three quarters as senior wing Brian Lindley bagged three 3-pointers. In the fourth period, 6-foot-6 center Greg Jones struck for nine of his game-high 24 points as West Valley took command 59-44.

“We’ve been kind of a slowstarting team, which isn’t bad because we’ve been finishing strong,” Feist said. “In the third quarter we came out and played some good pressure man-to-man without giving up easy baskets. It’s like that old saying, offense sells tickets and defense wins game.”

CdA found holes in the Eagles’ first-half defense. Trailing 5-0, the Vikings went on an impressive 17-2 run as Chris Pederson had six points and Josh Davis added a four-point play. Davis swished a 3-pointer, was fouled and made the free throw.

West Valley briefly took the lead at 21-19 in the second quarter, but the Vikings rambled back on Bruce Coppess’ three 3-pointers.

“We wanted to sag and make them shoot it. And in the first half, they did,” Feist said.

In the second half, Viking guards probably felt like they were dribbling in a phone booth. Bieber said West Valley’s full-court pressure was effective in part because Viking post players didn’t come to the middle of the floor to receive passes.

“By the time we figured it out, we were already behind,” Bieber said.

Meanwhile, West Valley’s decision making improved, Feist said. “We’re getting better at deciding when to shoot the 3-pointer and when to work it inside.”

Coppess led CdA with 14 points. Like most of the Vikings, he was hot in the first half, scoring 12 points, but tailed off to 1 of 5 shooting in the second half. Jesse Hoorelbeke had 12 points and Luke Adamen had 10.

West Valley did extensive damage at the foul line, converting 22 of 29. CdA was just 3 of 5.

“That’s been the story of our season,” Bieber said. “We put a lot of guys on the line because we play so hard.”

CdA returns to Inland Empire League play against Sandpoint on Friday and Lewiston on Saturday. West Valley meets Clarkston in Frontier League action on Friday.

West Valley 70, Coeur d’Alene 54

West Valley 12 15 23 20 - 70 Coeur d’Alene 17 17 10 10 - 54

WEST VALLEY Elias 9, Schillinger 5, Lindley 18, Stone 5, Jones 24, Bonner 4, Gregorak 5.

COEUR d’ALENE Coppess 14, Pederson 6, Klassen 6, Fink 2, Hoorelbeke 12, Davis 4, Adamen 10.

Cheney 59, Priest River 39

Tucker Urdahl scored nine of his 14 points in the fourth quarter to ignite an 18-1 run and lead the Blackhawks (3-11) over the visiting Spartans (5-8).

Cheney held Priest River to 1-of-11 shooting from the field in the fourth quarter. Mario Chodorowski had 15 points and six rebounds for the Blackhawks. Kyle York of Priest River scored 16.

Priest River 18 6 12 3 - 39 Cheney 15 10 16 18 - 59

PRIEST RIVER Score 0, Clark 0, York 16, Rabe 0, Schaefer 2, Trost 7, Walters 2, Mohr 10, Eskelson 0, Warren 2.

CHENEY Randall 2, Battien 0, Urdahl 14, Chodorowski 15, Odood 0, Ohuche 0, Just 0, Holmes 16, DeMulling 12.

Lakeside 66, Sandpoint (sophs.) 41

David SiJohn and Brandon Nelson scored 13 apiece as the visiting Knights (7-5) defeated the young Bulldogs.

Lakeside 24 15 13 14 - 66 Sandpoint 4 14 16 7 - 41

LAKESIDE Twoteeth 7, SiJohn 13, Montague 6, Nelson 13, Meshell 10, Lambert 12, Hammonds 2, Wolfe 3.

SANDPOINT (sophomores) - Warren 2, Wood 1, Smith 2, Lavery 1, Rif 1, Chedy 14, Taubr 5, Nelson 7.

North Star

F.Christian 75, Kootenai 61

Despite playing ill, Josh Erk had 24 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists as the Eagles (3-3, 9-8) defeated the visiting Warriors (0-4, 4-5) at Post Falls.

Adrian Cushman had 17 points and 14 rebounds, and Jared Horton added 10 rebounds and five blocked shots for Falls Christian. Kootenai’s Dan Usdrowski had 17 points, including a 35-footer at the final buzzer. The Warriors made three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to close a big gap.

Kootenai 17 15 6 23 - 61 Falls Christian 15 15 19 26 - 75

FALLS CHRISTIAN Cushman 17, Erk 24, Gelnette 13, McKee 0, Horton 11, Allen 10.

KOOTENAI Derbyshire 4, Carlson 5, Chatfield 12, Renner 11, Usdrowski 17, Lamb 5, Green 5, Reinhofer 2.

Northeast A

Riverside 63, Lakeside 57

At Chattaroy, Kevin Kuntz made 6 of 6 free throws in the final 2 minutes as the Rams (8-3, 10-4) broke out of a first-place logjam by edging the visiting Eagles (6-5, 9-5).

Riverside moved one-half game ahead of idle Medical Lake, Chewelah and Freeman - all 7-3.

Lakeside trailed by 12 with 2 minutes to go, but Chevy Mathews made two 3-pointers and Jared Hatch hit another to pull the Eagles within four points. Riverside’s Keith Cook made two free throws in the final 20 seconds to seal the win.

Lakeside 15 12 9 21 - 57 Riverside 20 8 20 15 - 63

LAKESIDE Bender 0, Nelson 2, Feider 0, Hatch 22, Mathews 14, Miller 17, Petticrew 2, Tenny 0.

RIVERSIDE Cook 17, Hodgson 0, Koesel 2, Monroe 3, Smith 0, Johnson 10, Ahrens 13, Kuntz 12, Gannon 6.

Panorama

Curlew 61, Republic 49

Johnathan Wakefield had 25 points and nine rebounds to lead the thirdranked Cougars (11-0, 15-0) over the visiting Tigers (8-3, 8-7) - the team closest to Curlew in the North Division.

Bowe Brown had five assists and two steals, and Gary Hughes added 11 rebounds for Curlew.John Kuchenmeister led Republic with 17 points and five rebounds. Jason Baldwin and Mark Rickard had three 3-pointers apiece for the Tigers.

Republic 13 12 4 20 - 49 Curlew 10 22 18 11 - 61

REPUBLIC Baldwin 11, Grimm 0, Rickard 13, Symmes 0, J.Kuchenmeister 17, K.Kuchenmeister 4, Hunt 2.

CURLEW Baker 0, Paul 5, Brown 3, Edwards 2, Hughes 14, Wakefield 25, Nelson 12.