Lakeside Rebounds For Crown

They had to put the district championship T-shirts on ice for a night.

But as fast as the Lakeside High School boys basketball team wrapped up the A-4 District I championship game Saturday night in the “if necessary” game, the specially designed shirts had plenty of time to thaw out.

After a tight first quarter, Lakeside pressed and sprinted its way past the Mullan Tigers 54-30 at Lakeland High School.

“Ken Staggs, a teacher at our school, had the T-shirts made two weeks ago,” a smiling Lakeside coach Greg Stutzman said.

Yes, that’s how confident the undefeated North Star League champion Knights (19-4 overall) were about a trip to state, which will be held beginning Thursday at Hillcrest High School in Idaho Falls. Lakeside will open against Cascade (15-8) at 12:45 p.m. PST in the first game of the tourney.

But Mullan made Lakeside earn the trip Friday when the Tigers tripped the Knights 55-53.

“I guess we ran out of gas after last night,” said Mullan coach John Drager, whose team finished the season at 14-6. “We didn’t resemble in any way tonight how we played (last night). They kicked our butts. The disappointing thing is we didn’t go out with our best game.”

Stutzman thought his team played Saturday like it was embarrassed by its play Friday.

“Last night (Mullan) controlled the tempo; that just wasn’t how we’d played in (the previous) 21 games,” Stutzman said. “The loss was a reality check for us.”

Mullan committed 25 turnovers, and the greater majority of those were forced by Lakeside. In fact, a review of the game video would probably show that the Knights got their hands on several dozen Mullan passes or shots.

Lakeside started to assert control late in the first half. An uncontested layup by Glen Lambert put the Knights ahead to stay at 19-17 with 2 minutes left before halftime.

Lakeside was a blur in the third quarter, creating offense out of its pressure defense and holding Mullan without a basket in the quarter (the Tigers had two free throws). A leaning 6-footer by Sam Matheson with 2 seconds left in the quarter put Lakeside ahead 43-21 and brought the T-shirts out of the ice chest.

Mullan 10 9 2 9 - 30

Lakeside 9 13 21 11 54

MULLAN Lindstrom 2, Fritz 5, Angle 3, Sisk 3, Reed 15, Greenfield 2, Bush 0.

LAKESIDE Twoteeth 0, Nelson 4, Pluff 12, Montague 7, Lambert 10, Mateson 6, Meshell 7, Allen 7, Wolfe 1.

, DataTimes