Lakeside, Mullan Start Slow, Finish Strong

A-4 District I

The intensity heated up in the second half of both A-4 District I boys basketball tournament games on Wednesday night at Lakeland High School.

And there were no surprise winners.

Top-seeded Lakeside outmanned No. 4 seed Falls Christian 66-34 in the early game.

Second-seeded Mullan relied on 65 percent field-goal shooting and strong rebounding to pull away from No. 3 Clark Fork 60-34 in the nightcap.

Lakeside (18-3) and Mullan (14-5) tangle in Friday night’s championship game at 7.

By virtue of winning the North Star League title, the Knights must be twicebeaten in order for the Tigers to gain the district’s lone state berth.

“Hopefully, we can play with more intensity against Lakeside,” 27th-year Mullan coach John Drager said. “If we move the ball and play great defense, it’s going to be a good game.”

Less than two weeks ago, Lakeside won the NSL with a 58-51 win at Mullan. The Tigers missed 16 free throws in that game.

Lakeside 66, Falls Christian 34

The Knights, ranked No. 4 in the State A-4 poll, put the game out of reach in the last 5 minutes, outscoring the Eagles 16-2.

Lakeside never trailed, as the Knights sank 8 of 12 first-quarter field-goal attempts and opened a 19-9 lead.

The Knights’ fullcourt pressure defense forced eight of Falls Christian’s 27 turnovers in the second quarter, including three straight in the first 2 minutes, but Lakeside missed the three ensuing layups.

“We took control from the get-go,” Knights coach Greg Stutzman said. “There’s a time we got hurt a little bit when we didn’t fill the lanes as well as we should.”

Senior wing Dan Montague led Lakeside with a game-high 18 points, seven rebounds and six steals.

The Knights shot 43 percent from the field and committed just 10 turnovers.

Falls Christian ended its season at 9-11, paced by 15 points, 11 rebounds and 5 steals from junior wing Ben Larson.

“They came out and they knew they could beat Falls Christian,” Stutzman said. “What we were trying not to do is overlook Falls Christian ahead to Mullan. That’s what we didn’t want to do.”

Falls Christian 9 8 8 9 - 34

Lakeside 19 13 13 21 - 66

FALLS CHRISTIANBacks 0, Burrage 0, Horton 13, Gilbreath 0, Larson 15, Burns 4, Bligh 0, Baker 2.

LAKESIDEMeshell 10, Montague 18, Wolfe 0, Lambert 12, Nelson 12, Twoteeth 2, Allen 4, Matheson 6.

Mullan 60, Clark Fork 39

The Wampus Cats went to a 1-3-1 zone defense to erase a 10-point first-quarter deficit and pull to within 20-18 with 1:38 left in the first half.

Clark Fork stayed with that zone in the second half and that seemed to help Mullan.

“The 1-3-1 trap has been real effective, it slows the game up to our tempo,” Wampus Cats coach Bird Nietman said. “But the zone changed the whole tempo of the game.”

The Tigers picked the zone apart, making 17 of 26 second-half field goals.

Mullan also outrebounded Clark Fork 34-27, including 20-7 in the second half.

“We got the focus back,” Drager said of the second half. “We were rebounding flat. (We needed to) get the lead out. It’s do or die, either play hard or it’s over with.”

Senior David Reed and junior Chris Angle topped Mullan with 19 and 18 points, respectively.

Clark Fork (9-11) got 14 points from post Jason Stevens.

Clark Fork 6 12 5 16 - 39

Mullan 16 7 19 18 - 60

CLARK FORKB. Stevens 4, Reuter 6, Lamburth 9, Stutzke 4, Powell 2, Higgin 0, J. Stevens 14.

MULLANBush 0, Lindstrom 6, Reed 19, Angle 18, Chavez 2, Fritz 6, Sisk 7, Greenfield 2.

, DataTimes