Hawks soar

Lakeland did something it couldn’t do against Moscow during the regular season. The Hawks’ girls basketball team smothered the Bears with full-court pressure.

The result was a 16-0 start that Moscow was never able to recover from as Lakeland captured its second straight 4A Region I championship and seventh consecutive regional/district title overall with a statement-making 60-45 win Saturday at Lake City High School.

Twice in Inland Empire League play Moscow posted 10-point victories over Lakeland. But the Hawks and the Bears weren’t the same teams this time around.

Lakeland (15-7) advances to state, which begins Feb. 16 at Timberline High School in Boise.

Post Falls (11-11) stayed alive by throttling Sandpoint 46-26 in the loser-out opener Saturday. Post Falls will travel to Moscow (9-13) on Tuesday in a loser-out game. The winner advances to a play-in game Feb. 11 against the District III third-place finisher for a state berth at Grangeville High School.

Lakeland 60, Moscow 45: The Hawks had contributions from several players. But none was more important than the game-opening presence established by speedy senior Kayla Stiegemeier.

Stiegemeier, who is headed to Seattle Pacific University to play soccer next year, seemingly marked all the Bears in Lakeland’s patent diamond press. She scored the Hawks’ opening seven points and had five steals. She finished with 12 points in the opening period as the Hawks raced to an insurmountable 18-1 lead.

And she did it while battling one of her usual asthma attacks. About 80 seconds into the second quarter, she took herself out gulping for air. Frequently during the final three periods she had to take breaks.

“She has serious asthma,” Lakeland coach Steve Seymour said. “When it happens she has to come out. Either I have to sub if there’s a dead ball or I have to burn a timeout. You never know when it’s going to hit her. It hits her at different times. It depends on the game.”

No wonder she was stricken by it early Saturday. Stiegemeier expended a lot of energy, but she bounced back to have an impact in the second half as well. She finished with a game-high 21 points.

Afterward, she was all smiles, going so far as predicting a state title. She said she didn’t expect her team to get out to such a fast start.

“It was amazing. I wasn’t ready for it,” Stiegemeier said of the quick start. “I hoped we’d come out that way. Like they (her coaches) said in the locker room (after the game), it was the best start of any district game that they’ve ever seen. I totally agree.”

To Moscow’s credit, it didn’t fold despite not scoring a basket until the 5:04 mark of the second quarter. And thankfully, Sara Picard showed up in the first half to bail out the Bears. She scored 10 of her team-high 20 points in the second quarter, and it was her basket with 3:47 to go before halftime that pulled Moscow within 23-10.

But Lakeland pushed the lead to as many as 18 points before leading 33-17 at the half.

Things tightened up in the third quarter. Moscow got the lead under double digits at 37-29 when Picard scored with 1:59 to go before the fourth quarter.

But a 3-pointer from Stiegemeier and back-to-back difficult shots by senior post Brigitte Boucher with Moscow’s 6-foot-4 post Kelsey Taylor draped all over her allowed Lakeland to extend the lead to 44-31 through three quarters.

Moscow cut the lead to nine points twice before Lakeland finished strong.

Seymour said the key Saturday was being able to keep frequent pressure on the Bears.

“(During league) we were tentative in our press,” Seymour said. “We were in the right spots, but we just kind of watched them pass around us. Tonight we wanted to trap and close the door and not let them have a good look at the rest of the floor.”

Moscow coach Lisa Carscallen was pleased her team fought back.

“We didn’t attack their press at the beginning,” Carscallen said. “We were timid and afraid against the press early. We were down 18-1. What do you have to lose, right? We finally played the way we should have played to start the game.”

Boucher had 12 points and eight rebounds. Taylor had eight blocked shots and six rebounds.

Stiegemeier, Boucher, Taylor and Moscow guard Kelly Scott were all named to the all-tournament team announced by the media. Post Falls sophomore Jenny McVeigh also was named to the team.

Post Falls 46, Sandpoint 26: Saturday, the Trojans were more like the team coach Chris Johnson expected to show up in the regional tourney.

After a tightly contested first half, the Trojans broke away in a hurry in the third quarter. Post Falls held Sandpoint (8-14) to 11 second-half points.

Sophomore guard Heather Arnone led PF with 17 points.

Kendal Burt led Sandpoint with 10 points.