Cats, Eagles Return To State

A-4 District I boys basketball

The North Star League wastes no time deciding its state basketball berths.

The league started with its four teams Wednesday and cut the field in half as conference champ Clark Fork and Falls Christian earned repeat state invitations.

Top-seeded Clark Fork ran away from No. 4 Kootenai 69-49 and No. 2 Falls Christian rallied to knock off No. 3 Mullan 51-42 in the more competitive game at North Idaho College’s Christianson Gym.

Clark Fork (15-5) and Falls Christian (14-7) will play for seeding and the A-4 District I championship Friday night. Tipoff is at 8:30, immediately following an A-2 District I loser-out game at 7.

Clark Fork 69, Kootenai 49

The Wampus Cats staggered the Warriors early and often as Clark Fork mounted a 26-7 lead by the end of the first quarter.

Several players were involved, but in the center of things was 6-foot-7 post Shawn Rounsville.

Rounsville scored a season-high 24 points - evenly split in both halves. He scored 10 in the first quarter and 10 in the third quarter.

Clark Fork’s defense forced many of Kootenai’s 29 turnovers. The Wampus Cats coughed up many of their own, committing 24 turnovers.

“We had some careless turnovers at times,” first-year coach and longtime Clark Fork resident Bob Hayes said. “But we played a lot of different combinations that we hadn’t played before.”

The Wampus Cats can be forgiven for appearing disinterested at times. The undermanned Warriors fought hard, but didn’t have enough weapons to counter Clark Fork.

Clark Fork junior guards Brent Stutzke and Antone Changala combined for 24 points. Tyler Cress led Kootenai (6-12) with 13.

“It was about an average effort,” Hayes said. “We played well enough to win. We’ll have to play better than we did tonight to win at state.”

Kootenai 7 16 11 15 49

Clark Fork 26 16 14 13 69

Kootenai (6-12) - Gustin 3, T. Cress 13, Prickett 3, Hall 11, Reinhardt 0, Dyer 0, J. Cress 6, Krieps 4, Finney 5, Donohoe 4.

Clark Fork (15-5) - Changala 9, Stutzke 14, Stevens 2, Valliere 7, Vogel 6, Rounsville 24, Powell 3, Wold 0, Schiffman 4, Allen 0.

Falls Christian 51, Mullan 42

It’s doubtful that Eagles coach Jared Phay mentioned anything about it at halftime, but he was more than a little concerned that his team trailed 25-18.

After all, FCA had already bought airline tickets to state.

Playing much more inspired, FCA came out and started doing something it hadn’t done much of in the first half - moving on offense.

“We watched Mullan run our offense the entire first half,” Phay said. “They were running it better than we were. It took us a while to get going.”

In a word, FCA started driving. And the baskets started adding up quickly.

FCA used a 7-0 spurt to tie the score at 25-all 3 minutes into the third quarter. The teams exchanged leads before the Eagles took it for good when sophomore Scott Jackson hit a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to put FCA ahead 33-31 with 1:08 left in the third quarter.

The Eagles built a 37-31 lead, but Mullan’s Tyler Carrico hit a banking 22-footer at the buzzer to pull the Tigers within 37-34 going into the final quarter.

FCA pushed the lead to 10 points twice in the fourth quarter. Mullan couldn’t get any closer than six.

Junior post Russ Baker provided a huge lift offensively for FCA in the second half. After making just 1 of 8 shots in the first half, Baker bounced back to score 16 of his game-high 19 points on 6-of-13 shooting in the final two periods.

It was FCA’s fourth win in four games against Mullan (7-12).

“I was wondering a little bit at halftime,” Phay said, smiling. “But Mullan had a great game plan. They had us scouted pretty well.”

Jean Hegbloom led Mullan with 13 points. Derik Stanley scored eight in the first half, but he was plagued by foul trouble in the second half and finished with 10 points.

Clark Fork beat FCA twice in league, but the Eagles tightened the gap in a 49-48 loss last week.

Mullan 12 13 9 8 -42

Falls Christian 6 12 19 14 -51

Mullan (7-12) - Carrico 7, Stanley 10, Elwood 2, Winkler 0, Hegbloom 13, Short 1, Elliott 1, Hoven 8.

Falls Christian (14-7) - Danforth 5, Alger 0, Krahn 0, Jackson 10, Dowers 0, Smoot 8, Bishop 0, Anderson 9, McKee 0, Baker 19.

All-league

The all-league team was introduced between games Wednesday.

Clark Fork and Falls Christian each landed three players on the team. Wampus Cats Stutzke, Changala and Rounsville were joined by Eagles Jackson, Baker and Mike Anderson.

Also named to the team were Mullan’s Stanley and Hegbloom and Jon Hall of Kootenai.