League Play Gives Teams A Fresh Start Lake City Heavily Favored To Walk Away With Iel Crown

Inland Empire League boys basketball teams begin conference play tonight, and Lewiston coach Dick Richel sees league as an opportunity for a fresh start.

Richel isn’t alone. As four of the five teams brace for league openers, just one team boasts a winning record.

It’s no surprise which team had the most successful first half of the season. Lake City, 6-3 overall and heavily favored to win the league championship, entertains defending league champion Post Falls (4-4) tonight.

In the other opener, Coeur d’Alene (4-5) treks to Lewiston (3-7).

Idle Sandpoint (4-7) will warm up for its league debut Tuesday (at home against Lake City) with a non-league game Saturday against visiting St. Maries.

“League is a breath of fresh air for us,” said Richel, whose Bengals have lost four in a row and seven of their last eight. “It’s a chance for us to start over. I’ve told the kids all week that we’re not any further away from our goals than we were at the start of the season.”

Lake City was tabbed as the league favorite in preseason, and all the Timberwolves have proved worthy of the pre-league respect through nine games.

“Everybody is even in the league except for Lake City. Lake City is heads and tails above everybody else and that’s not meant as a putdown to the rest of us. Offensively, I don’t see a team that touches (LC).”

LC coach Jim Winger doesn’t mind all the finger pointing.

“We’re the favorites, we can handle that,” he said. “We go into league prepared. The first half of the season went better than I expected. I truly believe our first seven games were against as good a teams as you can find in the area.”

But Winger knows his Timberwolves won’t win the league without a contest.

“I think the league is even; I’m not sure we’re a clearcut No. 1 team or that there’s a clearcut No. 2 or No. 3,” he said.

LC and Post Falls waged three intriguing battles last year, capped in the regional-title game won by LC.

“Any time Post Falls and Lake City match up it’s going to be a good ballgame regardless of records,” Post Falls coach Scott Moore said.

Moore’s Trojans must find a way to contain LC’s Jon Chatfield, who leads all area scorers with a 26.3 average. But Moore warns that his team can’t forget about the rest of the Timberwolves.

“Lake City has a lot of different weapons; it’s not just the Jon Chatfield show,” Moore said.

CdA coach Larry Bieber eyes the Viks’ opener as an opportunity to see how much they’ve improved over last season. The Viks have already won more games (four) than they did last season (three).

“(Lewiston) is going to be our test. We’ll be able to gauge where we’re at and where we’re headed against Lewiston,” Bieber said.

In other non-league games Saturday, Lakeland (0-7) is at Lake City and Wallace (4-5) goes to Coeur d’Alene.

As part of a doubleheader tonight, the Post Falls (1-2 in league, 8-5 overall) and LC (3-1, 9-5) girls will join the boys. The girls contest will tip off at 6.

LC won the first meeting between the teams, and the T-Wolves need a victory to keep pace with league-leading Sandpoint (3-0, 11-2).

Intermountain League boys teams, meanwhile, begin league play in earnest tonight.

Bonners Ferry (1-0, 4-2) and St. Maries (1-0, 2-4), the two teams with league victories, meet tonight at St. Maries, while Lakeland (0-1) goes to second-ranked Kellogg (6-1) and Moscow (5-2) visits Priest River (0-1, 1-8).

In a league contest Saturday, Bonners Ferry travels to Moscow.

, DataTimes