Washington Stars Too Much For North Idaho’s Top Guns

The Eastern Washington girls basketball allstar team had a little bit of everything Friday in the Washington/Idaho AAU All-Star Classic.

The combination of deadly outside shooting, offense in transition and a sizeable advantage inside was too much for North Idaho to counter as Eastern Washington ran away in the final 10 minutes for an 87-61 victory before an estimated crowd of 2,000 at Lake City High School.

North Idaho co-coach Dave Stockwell of Lake City felt fortunate that his team trailed by just 10 points 37-27 at intermission.

“We should have been down by 20 points easily at halftime,” Stockwell said.

Stockwell was tickled that his team threatened early in the second half. Especially since it was essentially playing without LC standout point guard Jennifer Kerns, who languished in foul trouble on the bench before fouling out with 7:47 remaining.

But Eastern Washington’s outside attack of Stacy Clinesmith, Emily Ireland and Tricia Lamb proved lethal.

Eastern Washington’s shortest player, the 5-foot-4 Clinesmith of Mead, stood tallest.

Clinesmith scored a team-high 15 points in the first half and finished with 21 and a handful of steals and assists to earn most valuable player honor for her team.

“We played really hard, intense,” Clinesmith said. “We really wanted to win this game. I thought we’d play well together, but we played a lot better than I expected.”

After hitting all five of her shots in the first half, Clinesmith tried to get other players involved in the final 20 minutes.

It worked as 10 Eastern Washington players figured in a 50-point second-half output.

And when North Idaho opened the second half in a 2-3 zone, Emily Ireland’s eyes got big. Ireland hit 2 of 4 3-pointers and Tricia Lamb of St. John-Endicott made 2 of 3.

“I love to play against a zone because I’ll just spot up,” Ireland, a Ferris graduate, said. “If they give me the ball I’ll shoot it. I just happened to be on.”

After taking its 10-point edge at halftime, Eastern Washington threatened to blow it open early in the second half.

A pull up 7-foot jumper in the key by Kelly Bartleson of Shadle Park gave the visitors their biggest lead at 49-35 with 15:06 remaining.

North Idaho bounced back, going on a 16-7 run to cut the lead to 56-51. Alli Nieman of Sandpoint, who was named North Idaho’s MVP, had four key points in the surge as did Heidi Umthun of Post Falls.

But Eastern Washington wouldn’t allow North Idaho to get any closer.

Nieman finished with a team-high 20 points.

Ireland scored 13 points, 12 in the second half, and Lamb scored all nine of her points in the second half.

E. Washington 87, North Idaho 61

EASTERN WASHINGTON (87)

Morrisette 5, Lamb 9, Ford 2, Clinesmith 21, Martin 6, Schmick 2, Cory 3, Bartleson 4, Stinson 2, Guenther 2, Perno 4, Ireland 13, Rainer 4, Hoots 2, Swinton 8.

NORTH IDAHO (61)

Telford 1, Peterson 4, Umthun 8, Regehr 1, Nearing 2, Kerns 0, Gomez 6, Herbert 0, Viebrock 0, Shepard 5, Riggs 3, Dodge 8, Nieman 20, Nipp 3, Sorbel 0.

Halftime - Eastern Washington 37, North Idaho 27.

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