Lake City, Lewiston Advance
A-1 Region I girls
Enough with the preliminaries. Bring on the main event.
The two top-ranked girls basketball teams in the state won A-1 Region I tournament openers Wednesday in distinctly different styles, setting up what could be the first of three showdowns Friday in the state-qualifying tournament.
No. 1-rated Lake City spanked crosstown rival Coeur d’Alene 65-28 and second-ranked Lewiston fought off fearless Post Falls, 37-29, at LC.
Lake City (18-3 overall) and Lewiston (18-1) will collide when the double-elimination tourney resumes Friday. The winner advances to the championship game. Lewiston grabbed a share of the Inland Empire League title last week by defeating Lake City 37-32.
In a loser-out preliminary Friday, CdA (7-15) will take on Post Falls (12-9) at 6 p.m.
Lake City 65, CdA 28
If you had told CdA coach Sheila Sharp that the top player in the state, Lindsay Herbert, would score just three points, Sharp would have figured it would be a good night.
However, Lake City is more than a one-player team. The Timberwolves received contributions from several players.
None stood out more than 6-foot-4 junior post Alison Asher.
Asher dominated the key, scoring a game-high 21 points, grabbing 13 rebounds and blocking eight shots. And she altered as many or more shots.
“We played pretty good team basketball,” LC coach Dave Stockwell said. “We weren’t really in the half-court all that often and I thought our transition game was very good. We did a good job passing the ball, hitting the open man.”
As has been typical in this one-sided series, LC jumped on the Viks early. The T-Wolves led 17-4 after the first quarter.
They extended their advantage to 21 points in the second quarter. A 7-2 spurt by CdA sliced the margin to 28-12 at halftime.
The teams played evenly in the third period, although CdA pulled within 13 points at 36-23 with a minute remaining. But a jumper in the key by Asher and a 3-pointer from Laura Dodge pushed the lead to 41-25 by period’s end.
CdA fell apart in the fourth, and LC kept pressing the issue. In fact, the T-Wolves were in a questionable full-court trapping press with 14 seconds left.
LC outscored CdA 24-3 in the final period.
“At times we looked really good, but we had a few mental lapses,” Stockwell said.
Stockwell is looking forward to trying to avenge last week’s loss to Lewiston on Friday.
“Lewiston has to come to beat us,” Stockwell said. “If we play as we’re capable of playing, they’re (the Bengals) going to have to have a good game to beat us. If we play like we did last Thursday and let them control tempo, it’s going to be a long night for us. We have to control tempo.”
Sharp thought her team played timidly in the first half. She was pleased with the Viks’ intensity in the third quarter.
Kellie Stern led CdA with 14 points.
Coeur d’Alene 4 8 12 3 - 28
Lake City 17 11 13 24 - 65
Coeur d’Alene - Andre 3, Stranger 2, Shirley 0, Orr 4, Vig 0, Cultra 0, Bradbury 0, Tatum 0, Wilkey 4, Stern 14, Davis 1.
Lake City - Hatrock 9, Hayes 4, Hawn 4, Herbert 3, Asher 21, Dodge 10, McCabe 6, Gerzina 2, Rohlf 2, Cole 2, Nimke 2.
Lewiston 37, Post Falls 29
For a while, the seeding appeared reversed in the tourney opener.
Post Falls played as if it didn’t have anything to lose, and Lewiston didn’t look like a team that had won 17 of 18 games in the regular season.
Both teams played superb defense, but Lewiston found enough offense at the end to thwart the Trojans’ upset bid.
A three-point play by Laura Bloom and three free throws from Alison Roberts in the final minute secured Lewiston’s win.
“The kids executed the game plan perfectly,” Post Falls coach Chris Johnson said of defending Lewiston’s twin towers, Bloom and Sara McEachern. “I think the girls now realize they can beat Lewiston.”
Lewiston 5 10 8 14 - 37
Post Falls 8 6 6 9 - 29
Lewiston - A. Roberts 7, Cain 2, Albright 3, Martin 0, Benson 0, Cushman 8, McEachern 6, Bloom 11.
Post Falls - Billetz 4, Klaudt 0, Waltz 2, Swanstrom 2, Ruen 17, Glaser 4, Juhlin 0.
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