In and out with a win

Tyler Haynes knows that his Sandpoint High boys basketball team has something a lot of teams don’t possess – a presence inside and outside.

After the Bulldogs’ 67-56 win over Lakeland in an Inland Empire League game Friday at Rathdrum, Haynes thinks the Bulldogs are figuring it out.

“The last three or four games we’ve been talking a lot about the post touches,” Haynes said. “Teams have to guard Ben (Mitchell, a post). They commit a lot to defend him. He’s hard to defend. Chris (Hepperly, a point guard) is doing a good job of swinging the ball around (the perimeter) and getting his teammates open shots. He’s really understanding that ‘post touch’ means he gets some open looks.”

Hepperly dined on those open looks Friday, scoring a season-high 25 points on 8-of-13 shooting including 4 of 8 3-pointers.

While Hepperly was doing the damage outside, the active and athletic 6-foot-4 Mitchell was roaming unimpeded for the most part inside as he finished with 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Mitchell, in fact, made 8 of 9 shots inside the key. He also had 12 rebounds and three assists.

The game started as a track meet at Sandpoint. Hepperly hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Bulldogs a 36-34 lead at halftime.

Hepperly hit a basket in transition to extend Sandpoint’s lead to 47-40 with 3:21 to go in the third quarter.

Kam Kiefer hit a jumper seconds later to stop Sandpoint’s 9-0 spurt. But the Hawks were beginning to run out of gas and frustration was beginning to take over.

Lakeland junior guard Ryan Gallia was called for a technical when he pushed Sandpoint guard Chase Lowther during a deadball situation. The Bulldogs closed out the period with a 54-47 lead.

The Bulldogs (8-6 overall, 3-3 league) used an 8-0 spurt to build a 62-49 lead in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. Lakeland (6-8, 2-5) never recovered.

“We lost focus there for a little while in the third quarter and it showed when the frustration came out,” Lakeland coach Trent Derrick said.

IEL newcomer Lakeland, which plays host to Moscow tonight, is 0-5 against the 4A teams.

“We need to get a win against a 4A team,” Derrick said.

Sandpoint travels to league-leading Post Falls (5-1) tonight. The Trojans, behind a 25-foot shot by Scott Stockwell at the buzzer, edged the Bulldogs 65-62 at Sandpoint last week.

So Haynes knows his team can’t dwell long on the win over Lakeland.

“This is a very important win, but we’ve got a rival (tonight),” Haynes said. “It’s like you look at the next game and there are other variables in front of you. The league is so rounded. You don’t want to get caught unprepared. Every team has shown that we all do certain things that are very good against each other.”

Kiefer led the Hawks with 18 points and Gallia added 13. Lakeland continued to struggle from behind the 3-point arc where it made just 2 of 15 attempts.

“We’ve got to hit some of those shots in order to win in the (IEL),” Derrick said. “And we can’t lose focus. We don’t have any luxury of losing focus and still winning in this league. They’re all good teams in this league; there’s no minutes off.”