Lakeside And Mullan Win Openers

It’s probably too early to start talking about a possible North Star League showdown in the State A-4 boys basketball tournament title game.

So far so good, though.

NSL and District I champ Lakeside and runner-up Mullan came sprinting out of the blocks during opening-round play in the newly expanded 16-team tournament Wednesday.

Top-ranked Lakeside wants to return to the state championship game because it believes it should have won last year. Mullan’s players, meanwhile, are inspired to send retiring coach John Drager out with a trophy.

Both teams played inspired, to be sure. In an afternoon game, Mullan had little trouble with North Gem as the Tigers pulled away 64-47 at Bishop Kelly High School.

Down the road, at Borah High, Lakeside got into a track meet with Wilder before prevailing 84-76.

Mullan (18-6) takes on highly touted District II champ Troy (21-3) in a quarterfinal matchup tonight at 5:30 PST. Lakeside (20-1) faces off with Cascade (18-3) at 7.

One more win by the NSL teams guarantees a trophy game on Saturday.

Lakeside 84, Wilder 76

Excuse the estimated crowd of 400 that watched this scoring fest if it feels a little whiplash this morning.

There wasn’t much defense as the teams zipped back and forth in transition.

The Knights had opportunities to put Wilder away early, but the Wildcats would have nothing to do with it.

Both teams actually presented matchup problems for each other. Lakeside has a balanced team of height and quickness. Wilder has nobody taller than 6 feet, but is equally as speedy as Lakeside.

The quickness canceled each other out. The difference came inside, where 6-foot-5 Andrew Twiss and 6-3 Brenden Nelson owned the key.

However, foul trouble neutralized the posts and allowed Wilder to stay within shooting range. Twiss and Nelson combined for 31 points.

Matching that combined performance was Wilder’s 5-10 forward Jeremy Storms, who played up a storm. He single-handedly kept the Wildcats on the Knights’ heels with a game-high 35 points. He drove repeatedly uncontested along the baseline for easy layups.

It appeared both teams would threaten the 100-point mark in the first half. Wilder, in fact, scored 117 points in a regular-season game. So the pace was much to its liking.

A tipin at the buzzer by Twiss gave Lakeside a 24-14 lead after the first quarter. A 3-pointer by Ken Pluff, who played a marvelous game off the bench, gave the Knights their biggest lead in the opening half, at 34-16, with 5:40 left.

Five Lakeside turnovers in the final 1:20 allowed Wilder to pull within 47-37 at intermission. Six Knights scored seven or more points in the first half, led by Pluff’s 10 second-quarter points.

Lakeside’s lead was never seriously threatened in the third quarter, although it fluctuated from 14 to 7 points.

The Knights appeared to have the game in hand when Pluff made a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 80-68 with 2:45 left in the fourth quarter.

But two straight 3-pointers and a field goal pulled Wilder as close as it would get, at 80-76 with 1:24 remaining. A basket by Twiss and two free throws by James Twoteeth secured the win.

Pluff expects Lakeside’s inside-outside game to be very difficult for teams to defend.

“After halftime we just told each other that we had to come out and play like what got us here,” Pluff said.

Twiss said the game was tighter than the Knights wanted.

“It was a lot more interesting than we expected,” Twiss said, smiling. “I don’t know if we were tired (in the second half). I just think we made some dumb mistakes.”

Twiss scored a team-high 23 points and had 10 rebounds in probably no more than 2-1/2 quarters, because foul trouble limited his time. Pluff scored 17 points in two periods and Sam Lozeau added 10.

Lakeside 24 23 14 23 - 84

Wilder 14 23 17 22 - 76

Lakeside - Twoteeth 9, Nelson 8, Lozeau 10, Allen 9, McFadden 0, Pluff 17, Lambert 5, T. Morris 3, Twiss 23, B. Morris 0.

Wilder - Sandoval 2, Lechuga 5, Storms 35, K. Lynn 11, Ramirez 0, S. Lynn 21, Betancourt 2.

Mullan 64, North Gem 47

The only person with first-game jitters on Mullan’s bench was its coach.

Making its first appearance at state in six years, Mullan handed its 33-year coach an easy win.

Benefitting early from good teamwork was post Al Sisk, who scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the first half. He dominated in the low post, taking several nice passes and turning them into uncontested short jumpers.

Sisk deflected praise afterward.

“The guards just found me; it takes the team to win,” Sisk said, shrugging his shoulders.

Mullan took a 33-24 lead into the second half, and the Tigers made it stand up. They enjoyed their biggest lead at 52-34 late in the third quarter.

The Tigers were torrid from the field, making 23 of 35 shots.

Mullan takes on a well-disciplined, hard-nosed defensive team in Troy tonight.

Sisk believes the Tigers will prevail. “If we play like we normally do we should take them,” he said.

Drager expects a battle royal.

“Do they have intensity and do they play defense,” said Drager, who watched Troy top Hagerman 47-32 before his game. “We’ve got to pick up the intensity (tonight).”

Two other Tigers joined Sisk in double figures. Chris Angle had 15 and Dan Fritz added 12. Steve Greenfield had nine rebounds to go along with nine points.

Mullan 17 16 19 12 - 64

North Gem 15 9 12 11 - 47

Mullan - Angle 15, Chavez 4, Fritz 12, Sisk 22, Greenfield 9, Truesdell 0, Morris 1, Valley 0, Zingler 0, Sala 0.

North Gem - Wistisen 0, Peterson 10, Mabey 12, Wilson 0, T. Hatch 5, Yost 14, C. Hatch 6, Preece 0.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: BOYS STATE A-4 At Borah High School Lakeside 84, Wilder 76 Valley Chr. 76, Oakley 71 (OT) Dietrich 68, Rockland 64 Cascade 58, Highland 50 At Bishop Kelly High School Troy 47, Hagerman 32 Mullan 64, North Gem 47 Nampa Christian 56, Carey 43 Shoshone 42, Rimrock 38