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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Lake City Rolls On To State T-Wolves Trounce Trojans To Wrap Up Regional Title

It was supposed to be Round 4 of the heavyweight battle between Inland Empire League girls basketball titans Lewiston and Lake City.

Instead, it was a matchup of Biblical proportions. And Goliath - otherwise known as Lake City - prevailed without breaking much of a sweat.

David, er, Post Falls, fresh off a monumental upset of Lewiston on Saturday, didn’t muster a challenge against top-ranked Lake City, as the Timberwolves won 62-39 in the A-1 Region I tournament championship game Tuesday before a sparse crowd of 350 in LC’s gym.

Lake City (20-3 overall) advances to the state tournament, which will be held Feb. 20-22 at Nampa. In their opener, the T-Wolves will meet either Eagle or Borah. Eagle and Borah tangle tonight at Boise in the District III championship game.

Post Falls (14-10) still has an opportunity to join LC at state. The Trojans will take on the winner of tonight’s Centennial-Nampa game in a playoff Saturday at Grangeville, with the winner going to state.

Tuesday night at Lake City, there wasn’t much material for the team’s season-ending highlight video.

Take the first half, for example. The teams combined for 36 turnovers, 22 by Post Falls. The Trojans finished with 32 turnovers to LC’s 24. And referee Steve Hudson committed two turnovers - one when he tumbled head over heels and the other when a player threw the ball and hit him in the nose.

In between, LC opened a 31-13 halftime lead. Post Falls attempted just 12 shots in the first 16 minutes.

“It wasn’t pretty, but the outcome was good,” LC coach Dave Stockwell said. “You could tell our kids wanted to play Lewiston again. Their intensity level dropped a little. But you’ve still go to play whoever comes to the gym.”

LC was never seriously threatened - although Post Falls closed within 14 points twice in the third quarter. The T-Wolves built a 26-point advantage in the fourth period.

The game began ominously for injury-riddled Post Falls. The Trojans lost point guard Jennifer Swanstrom, the hero of their win at Lewiston, just over a minute into the contest when she severely sprained her right ankle. She’s doubtful for Saturday’s game.

“We were already short-handed at guard,” moaned Post Falls coach Chris Johnson. “We struggled. The kids started pressing, trying to do it all by themselves. But I can’t fault their effort. They gave everything they had. We just ran out of bodies and gas.”

Johnson said he’ll take all healthy players and head to Grangeville. In fact, he wouldn’t mind playing today.

“We’ll be ready to play,” he said. “I don’t know how many players I’ll have, but I do know they’ll play their hearts out.”

Lindsay Herbert led Lake City with 17 points, four assists and four steals. Katie Hatrock had 16 points, six assists and four steals. Janelle Ruen led Post Falls with 20 points.

LC will take today off and return to practice Thursday.

“We start the third season now,” Stockwell said. “It’ll be just like the first day of practice, except our conditioning will be much better.”

Lake City 62, Post Falls 39

Post Falls 7 6 17 9 - 39 Lake City 18 13 13 18 - 62

POST FALLS - Billetz 7, Klaudt 1, Swanstrom 0, Waltz 5, Ruen 20, Glaser 2, Juhlin 0, Foster 4, Edmonds 0, Fehling 0.

LAKE CITY - Hatrock 16, Hayes 0, Hawn 4, Herbert 17, Dodge 10, Asher 7, McCabe 3, Cole 2, Gerzina 1, Nimke 0, Rohlf 2.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo