Kootenai’s Surprise Eases Some Pressure With Lakeside Jinx Gone, Warriors Set Sights On Title
Most followers of North Star League girls basketball had a pretty good idea that Kootenai would be going to the State A-4 tournament. But it was likely it would go as the second seed behind league champion Lakeside.
After all, Lakeside captured the league title with an 8-0 record. And Kootenai hadn’t beaten Lakeside in 12 years.
But the Warriors pulled off an upset last week as they toppled the Knights 46-39 in the district final.
“This game was a great achievement for these girls,” said Warriors coach Scott Shafer. “Last year when we played them (for the district championship), we were the ones who lost by seven points. We were shooting for them at the beginning of the year, and we just continued on until we eventually got them.”
Jamie Bornitz, Kootenai’s leading scorer, scored 18 points in the title game. Teammate Annie Goodson added 13. The two combined for 15 rebounds while preventing Angela Flint and Mary Kolar, Lakeside’s leading scorers, from putting their first points on the board until the second half.
Bornitz, a 6-foot post, takes averages of 17 points and 10 rebounds per game to state.
“The win helped improve our mental game to know we could do that after losing for so many years,” said Bornitz. “I don’t think there’ll be a lot of pressure for us at state. A lot of the pressure we put on ourselves was to just beat Lakeside and get there.”
The defeat will put Lakeside (17-4 overall) in the same bracket as Troy, a state power who was last year’s runner-up.
The Knights became the league’s youngest team after losing six seniors last year. Two seniors and six sophomores make up Lakeside’s varsity.
“We didn’t show our youth all season until the district title game,” said Knights coach Ron Miller, who has accumulated a 175-76 record during his nine years of coaching. “I really thought it’d happen before then. But we played our worst game of the season at district.
“I don’t think it was as much of what they did to us than what we did to ourselves. We were our own worst enemy. You can’t get that stressed out during a game and play well.”
Miller is hopeful his team has flushed it out of its system and will bounce back with the same youthful vigor they showed most of the season.
Lakeside has been to the state tournament six of the last nine years and took the state title in 1990. The Knights placed third two years, but were put out in two games last year.
“Our team should do a lot better than last year, because we have players who can play all around instead of depending on just one to carry the team,” said Flint, Lakeside’s lone returning starter from last year. “We’ve been playing well together and I think we can make it. We’ve just got to keep it together mentally.”
Lakeside opens with Rockland (15-7), the same team Kootenai opened with last year. Tipoff this afternoon is at 2:15 PST.
Kootenai, which was also put out of last season’s tournament in two, was sailing along against Rockland before stumbling in the second half. It was a game Kootenai should have won. The Warriors other defeat was to Raft River.
The Warriors (14-6) will match up against Garden Valley (18-1) this evening. Tipoff is at 5:30.
Kootenai came on strong at the end of the season, only losing one game since Christmas break. Its strength is its inside game, led by Bornitz. The athletic Goodson can cause problems because she’s so quick. And if guard Nat Damiano gets hot from the outside the Warriors will be difficult to defend.
, DataTimes