Vikings Topple City Rival Improved Coeur D’Alene Gets Off To Good Start, Beats Lake City 62-54

The Coeur d’Alene High boys basketball team tended to fold under the pressure of intense contests last year.

Like, for example, the one against its crosstown rival Friday.

Maturity, patience and some solid defense, though, are some of the obvious differences between Coeur d’Alene of last year and this season.

And if the Vikings ever get to full strength they will be difficult to beat. Until then, however, coach Larry Bieber would love to duplicate several copies of the Vikings’ 62-54 win over Lake City in a Border League game before an estimated crowd of 1,800 at LC.

“We were worried about tempo because they love to get you into a horse race - and they’re good at that,” said Bieber, whose team raised its record to 7-3 overall and 5-2 in league. “We have to get into a halfcourt game and get the ball inside to our big guys. We have to make them stop our inside game first.”

CdA didn’t have trouble inside, especially when Lukas O’Dowd was on the court.

O’Dowd, who returned during the holidays after missing the first seven games following hernia surgery, dominated although he’s still not at full strength.

About 90 minutes before the game, O’Dowd was on a stretcher getting treatment on his stomach that’s still healing.

O’Dowd got up long enough to score a game-high 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting and grab six rebounds. His play coupled with the always steady contributions from wing David Wood and the effective contributions of the Rupp brothers was too much for the Timberwolves (5-5, 4-4) to contain.

CdA led from the start. The Viks had four seven-point leads in the first quarter and they stretched it to 10 at 28-18 with 1:15 left in the second period. A basket in the key by Justin Nipp allowed LC to trim the lead under double digits at halftime (28-20).

“I thought we should have been down by a lot more (at halftime),” LC coach Jim Winger said. “They were ready to go, loose and fired up and we went out tight and dug ourselves a hole. We didn’t play well at all in the first half. We played harder in the second half, but we still did some things that I can’t quite figure out.”

LC climbed within two points at 36-34 when Chad Bramlet scored in the key with 34 seconds left in the third period.

A pull-up jumper by Gabe Hern to open the fourth quarter again allowed LC to get within two points. But the T-Wolves could never again mount a run of any significance.

Rupp and brother Jim hit back-to-back 3-pointers to extend CdA’s lead to 50-41 with 4:02 left.

LC would get no closer than five points thereafter. The T-Wolves were forced to send CdA to the foul line the final 2 minutes and the Viks protected their advantage.

“We weren’t mentally ready to go for some reason,” Winger said.

CdA defended LC’s top scorers (Hern and Chad Cheeley) well. The streaky shooters were a combined 5 of 17 in the first half to go with 6 of 16 in the final two quarters. Hern scored a team-high 19 points and Cheeley added 13.

Three other Viks joined O’Dowd in double figures. Jim Rupp and Jeff Rupp scored 14 and 12 points respectively and Wood added 11.

CdA hopes to have 6-6 starting post Casey Hoorelbeke back from a fractured foot as early as next Friday and no later than the following week.

The Viks entertain league-leading Cheney in the first game between the league’s two best teams Tuesday.

Coeur d’Alene 62, Lake City 54

Coeur d’Alene 16 12 10 24 - 62

Lake City 9 11 14 20 - 54

COEUR D’ALENE - Je. Rupp 12, Chambers 0, Ji. Rupp 14, Wood 11, Mellick 0, DeArmond 5, Sigler 3, O’Dowd 17.

LAKE CITY - Hern 19, Bramlet 6, Cheeley 13, Reiswig 0, Lenz 2, Barlow 0, Schuh 2, Nipp 12, Stroh 0, Thiringer 0.

Lewiston 60, Sandpoint 43

The Bengals recovered from a horrible shooting effort in the first quarter to finally pull away from the visiting Bengals in a Border League game.

Lewiston made 1 of 14 shots from the field in the low-scoring first quarter. But the Bengals bounced back with a 15-of-31 effort in the second half. They also played better defense, forcing 24 turnovers.

The Bengals improved to 8-3 overall, 5-2 in league just behind leader Cheney. Sandpoint fell to 4-7, 2-6.

Steve Johnson led Lewiston with 15 points. Stefon Kleinert was a force inside for Sandpoint, scoring 15.

Sandpoint 7 12 12 12 - 43

Lewiston 2 17 18 23 - 60

SANDPOINT - Nieman 11, Bowman 2, Watson 7, Menard 2, Gehring 1, Singleton 3, Kleinert 15, Rust 2.

LEWISTON - Egland 9, Pierce 1, Holmes 2, Couch 9, Maurer 0, Eck 6, Klamper 5, Wolf 4, Reineke 2, Johnson 22.

Post Falls 69, Clarkston 60

Despite a fourth-quarter comeback, the Bantams (1-5, 1-5) lost to the Trojans at Clarkston.

A-1 scoring leader Chad Quesnell shot 10 of 16 from the field and 7 of 8 from the foul line. Quesnell’s 12 points in the third quarter was just what the Trojans (5-4, 4-3) needed to hold the lead for the win.

Nick Meeks added four assists to the Trojan offense.

Post Falls 16 11 19 23 - 69

Clarkston 11 12 18 19 - 60

POST FALLS - Klaudt 2, Meeks 6, Quesnell 30, Christiansen 2, Fehling 4, Therrian 0, Miller 7, Leary 6, McArthur 2, Thornley 10.CLARKSTON - Norland 7, Smith 9, Blankinship 11, Fuchs 0, Harrington 8, Cummings 4, Cridlebaugh 5, Hayes 9, Hilty 5.

W. Valley 65, E. Valley 64

Of all the losses East Valley has suffered at the hands of West Valley in basketball - and there have been plenty - Friday night’s loss was one of the unkindest cuts of all.

The Knights had rallied from a 14-point deficit to lead by as many as 15 early in the fourth quarter, only to lose on Ryan Browning’s layin with 2 seconds left in the game.

“I feel bad for Rich (King, EV’s coach),” said WV coach Joe Feist. “I thought he did a great job of preparation and deserved a win.”

Not that the Eagles, who have only lost once to EV in Feist’s 12 years as head coach, didn’t.

They survived a frigid shooting spell that lasted the better part of two quarters to squander a 19-4 start and trailed 51-36 a minute into the final period.

Then Brad Groh caught fire for 15 of his game-high 24 points, including a game-tying 3-point shot with 16 seconds left.

EV, which made just 11 of 23 freethrow tries, accommodated the comeback by missing six attempts in the game’s final 1:44.

The last came on the second of two by Jesse Quirk after he gave the Knights a 64-63 lead with 9 seconds left.

WV got the rebound and got the outlet pass to point guard Kris Sly.

EV coaches thought Sly might have charged in an earlier collision. But he found a streaking Browning with a long pass for the winning layin.

“I was going to pass to Brad at first,” said Sly. “I saw Browning cutting underneath and just threw the ball to him.”

“Good decision,” offered his coach.

The basket improved WV to 6-4 overall and 4-2 in the Border League. The hard-luck Knights, who have also lost by a point in overtime this year, dropped to 1-9 and 0-6.

West Valley 19 15 2 29 - 65

East Valley 12 19 17 16 - 64

WEST VALLEY - Sly 9, Deno 4, Browning 8, Groh 24, Gregg 4, Spivey 12, Sorenson 2, Hilsabeck 2.

EAST VALLEY - Henderson 5, Sitton 9, Quirk 12, Burgess 20, Sterling 2, Storey 0, Pooley 0, Horgan 16.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo