Lake City Firmly Atop Basketball Rankings

The Lake City High School girls basketball team took a firm grip on No. 1 in the State A-1 poll this week after two commanding season-opening victories last weekend.

The state’s sportswriters unanimously voted to keep preseason favorite Lake City atop the rankings with seven first-place votes. The defending state champion Timberwolves opened the season with wins over perennial power Centennial of Meridian (70-53) and Meridian’s newest school, Eagle (68-53).

There was shifting beneath LC, however. Pocatello and Blackfoot, ranked second and third last week, fell into a tie at fourth. Highland jumped from fourth to second and Borah moved into the poll for the first time at third. Centennial fell out of the poll.

The only other team to receive unanimous billing was Shelley in the A-2 ratings. Preston moved from fourth to second, bumping Sugar-Salem to third. Despite not playing a game, Bonners Ferry fell from third to fourth and Moscow stayed at fifth.

The A-3 and A-4 polls saw changes at the top. Valley pushed defending champion Clearwater Valley down a rung to second in the A-3, while the sportswriters demoted defending A-4 champ Highland-Craigmont to second and moved Shoshone to first.

What’s on the menu?

A handful of teams will make their season debuts this weekend in the Panhandle.

For Lake City, though, a road trip to Boise will go a long way toward measuring how good it can be this season.

The Timberwolves (3-0) visit Boise (2-0) on Friday and call on Borah (2-0) in a Saturday afternoon game. Coeur d’Alene (0-2) is making the same trip and will swap opponents with LC, meeting Borah on Friday and Boise on Saturday.

Boise and Borah have been picked to finish first and third, respectively, in the Southern Idaho Conference (Boise area).

”(Last weekend) was a great starting point for us,” first-year LC coach Dave Stockwell said. “The real test for us will be this weekend. To me Borah is the team to beat (in the SIC). With the trip and the game Friday, playing Borah will be tough (Saturday).”

In other games Friday, Sandpoint opens by playing host to Lakeland (0-1), St. Maries travels to Post Falls (1-0), Priest River goes to Clark Fork (1-1), Moscow (0-1) is at Kellogg (2-0) in an Intermountain League opener, Kootenai (0-1) visits North Idaho Christian (0-1) and Lakeside (1-0) treks to Wallace (1-1).

In other games Saturday, Sandpoint visits St. Maries and Moscow goes to Priest River in an IML contest.

Around the state

SIC girls basketball coaches were asked recently by The Idaho Statesman newspaper in Boise to predict the league’s finish.

Boise, a team that hasn’t been among the upper-division residents in recent years, was tabbed to finish first. Capital was picked to finish second, Borah third and defending champion and district power Centennial fourth.

Nampa, Eagle, Meridian, Caldwell and Mountain Home were picked to follow the top four in that order.

Borah is looking forward to the showdown Saturday against Lake City. According to The Statesman, Borah’s players are predicting an upset, and they felt snubbed by the media in the preseason poll.

In eastern Idaho, Blackfoot is the favorite to win the High Country Conference (Idaho Falls area), and Rigby is expected to challenge.

Six of the seven teams in the conference have new coaches. Blackfoot coach Gerald Humpherys is the lone returning coach.

“I might as well throw all my old game film away, it won’t do me any good anymore,” Humpherys told the Post Register newspaper in Idaho Falls.

Blackfoot, 18-8 last year and a semifinal loser to state champion Lake City, return three starters, including talented 5-foot-10 senior guard and 3-point shooting specialist Stefney Layton.

Blackfoot had a tough season opener last weekend, however. Highland of Pocatello, which should prevail as the top team from District IV-V, downed Blackfoot 58-45.

Speaking of Highland, the perennial state power joins Lake City and Madison of Rexburg in welcoming a new coach.

Longtime Highland coach Randy Rehrer, who was a head coach in two sports, was fired last spring as head football coach. Rehrer left after landing a head football job in Utah.

Defending State A-2 champion Shelley, which went 23-0 last year and topped Bonners Ferry 55-48 in a thrilling title game, is the heavy favorite to win the District VI championship and advance to defend its state crown.

But the Russets have started the season without personable veteran coach Newel Sargent. He was diagnosed with cancer this summer and is in Texas undergoing chemotherapy. He’s expected to return to the team in December.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Girls basketball polls Here are this week’s Idaho high school girls basketball polls as voted by the state’s sportswriters. There will be no polls next week; polls resume Nov. 29. Records are through Tuesday. First-place votes are in parenthesis. A-1 Record Pts 1. Lake City (7) 3-0 70 2. Highland 2-0 60 3. Borah 2-0 47 4. tie, Blackfoot 0-1 21 Pocatello 0-1 21 Also receiving votes: Sandpoint 0-0, Boise 2-0, Rigby 1-1, Centennial 1-1, Lewiston 0-0.

A-2 Record Pts 1. Shelley (7) 2-0 70 2. Preston 0-0 52 3. Sugar-Salem 0-0 51 4. Bonners Ferry 0-0 46 5. Moscow 0-1 42 Also receiving votes: Burley 2-0, Jerome 1-1, Kuna 0-0.

A-3 Record Pts 1. Valley 1-0 51 2. C. Valley (5) 1-2 50 3. Grace 1-0 49 4. tie, Fruitland 2-0 34 Lapwai (2) 1-0 34 Also receiving votes: Ririe 2-0, Grangeville 2-0, Glenns Ferry 1-0.

A-4 Record Pts 1. Shoshone (1) 1-0 63 2. Highland (4) 3-0 61 3. Cambridge 0-0 45 4. Nampa Christian 1-1 26 5. Troy (2) 2-0 21 Also receiving votes: Oakley (0-2), Kendrick 1-0, Lakeside 1-0, Leadore 1-0, Dietrich 2-0.