Moscow Should Go Straight To State
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. We’ll keep saying it until a challenger is found.
Intermountain League officials might as well give the Moscow girls basketball team a bye through the A-2 District I-II Tournament next week, declaring the Bears the district champion and giving them one of the league’s two automatic berths to state.
Then the league’s other five teams could battle for the runner-up berth to state.
Moscow captured its fifth straight league title with a 74-37 win over Bonners Ferry, the second-best team in the league. During their streak of league titles the Bears are 48-1. That loss occurred last year at Bonners Ferry.
Moscow’s closest league game this season was a 13-point margin at BF. Moscow has won 18 straight games since a season-opening loss to Lake City.
Who hit the pause button?
It was almost as if time stood still in the final 3 minutes of the first half of the Lewiston-Lake City boys basketball game Friday.
Lake City was ahead 26-14 and had the ball with just more than 3 minutes remaining before halftime. Lewiston was in a zone defense and Timberwolves coach Jim Winger wanted to force the Bengals to play man-to-man.
T-Wolves guard Mike Thompson stood near midcourt holding the ball for nearly 3 minutes.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” LC coach Jim Winger said. “I think probably after 45 seconds it was a matter of who was going to give in first. I suppose it was a battle of the stubborns.”
Turn back the clock
We were beginning to believe that girls basketball in the A-4 North Star League was beginning to make advancements similar to the game at the A-2 and A-1 levels.
Especially with such talented players as Sarah Peterson of Falls Christian, Hailey Scofield of Clark Fork and Margaret SiJohn and Jennifer Niebuhr of Lakeside in the league.
But the Clark Fork-Lakeside game last Saturday may have set the NSL back nearly 20 years. In case you missed it, Lakeside hung on to down Clark Fork 16-12 at Plummer.
The Knights, who clinched the league title with the win, prevailed despite scoring just one - count it - one point in the second half.
Lakeside, which was 0 for 21 from the field in the second half, didn’t score its one point until SiJohn made a free throw with 1:30 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“How often do you score one point in the second half and win?” asked Lakeside coach Ron Miller.
In the first league game earlier in the season, Lakeside rallied for a 49-39 win.
Clark Fork coach Mark Stevens was as puzzled as Miller. “Both teams are real defense-oriented teams, but usually we crank up a few more points than that.”
Quotebook
Lewiston boys coach Dick Richel, on the eventual return of Lake City standout Jon Chatfield (stress fracture): “He’s going to take a pretty good player out of the lineup. Any time they want to send Mr. (Mike) Asper down our way we could certainly find some minutes for him. They certainly have some balance. I’m sure Chatfield’s going to make a big difference, particularly in a zone situation where you can stick one guy (Chatfield and Scott Hoover) on each side. They present a lot of problems and, again, we just don’t match up man-for-man with them in a defensive situation. We are limited to what we can do defensively.”
Richel II, on the improved play of Hoover: “You can tell he’s playing with so much more confidence now. He probably for a time felt a little bit like second fiddle with Chatfield getting all the ink and headlines. You get both of those guys sharing the spotlight and that’s a dangerous team. Their supporting cast is not chopped liver, either.”
Coeur d’Alene wrestling coach Pat Corbett, on losing a tight crosstown dual to Lake City (39-33) last week: “That was a pretty bitter pill to swallow.”
LC took home the first Ron TerHark Trophy, honoring the man responsible for starting the high school wrestling program in Coeur d’Alene. The trophy will go to the winner of the annual dual.
Final girls poll
The way the state’s sportswriters and broadcasters see it, Borah (A-1), Moscow (A-2), Glenns Ferry (A-3) and Dietrich (A-4) are favored to win state titles.
Those four teams were accorded top billing in the final rankings of the season. The polls can be found in the Stat Sheet.
In the boys polls, the top teams in the four divisions remained unchanged: Centennial (A-1), Bishop Kelly (A-2), Teton (A-3) and Nampa Christian (A-4).
, DataTimes