Vikings stumble despite Smith’s 30

It was one of those good news/bad news scenarios for the Coeur d’Alene Vikings boys basketball team Friday.

The good news was that senior forward Cody Smith chose senior night to shine, putting on a shooting clinic while establishing a personal career scoring best.

The bad news was that it just wasn’t quite enough as the Vikings fell to the Moscow Bears 62-53 in Inland Empire League action at Elmer Jordan Court.

The news gets worse.

CdA’s loss means the Vikings have to travel to Lake City (a 52-46 overtime winner over Post Falls Friday) for a Region 1 loser-out game Tuesday. That game begins at 7.

Moscow, the No. 1-seeded 4A team will open regional play Friday against No. 4 Lakeland beginning at 7:30.

Moscow (11-6 overall, 8-3 IEL) led the entire game but had to thwart a determined CdA comeback in the game’s final minutes to hold on.

“We had to keep weathering the storm,” said Moscow coach Lance Hansen. “They shoot so many threes, eventually some of them are going to fall.”

Moscow’s Shane Miller gave the Bears a 3-0 lead with a long shot from the top of the key 54 seconds into the game and Moscow stretched its advantage to 14-6 at the end of the quarter.

Moscow held leads as high as nine points in the first half, but CdA (12-8, 7-5) would not go away.

An 11-0 Moscow run early in the final quarter gave the Bears a 55-40 lead, but CdA was able to cut it to 57-51 with 52 seconds left when Smith muscled one in from under the basket.

But Moscow, which made 23 of 25 free throws for the game, hit 5 of its last 6 to seal the win.

Smith’s first half numbers were impressive.

After going 0 for 3 from the field in the first quarter and with CdA’s other offensive threats being quieted by the Moscow defense, Smith took over.

He scored all 16 CdA points in the second quarter, connecting on 6 of 9 field goals including 4 of 6 from 3-point range.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Vikings were misfiring on all six of their shot attempts.

Smith then scored CdA’s first five points of the third quarter before Andrew Prohaska hit a free throw to break the string of 21 consecutive CdA points.

He finished with 30.

“Cody had a fantastic game. I can’t say anything more,” CdA coach Kent Leiss said. “He was very aggressive. We just did not get enough from our other offensive players.”

In particular, senior Matt Palmer and junior Nate Bligh, two of the Vikings’ main threats, were held in check by the Bears. They combined for six points.

“We didn’t really change up from what we did last time we played them,” said Moscow forward Cody Line. “We pretty much stuck with our game plan.”

“Palmer is such a great shooter, we wanted our best defender on him. And Bligh had a great game against us in Moscow,” Hansen said. “We just wanted to know where they were and have a hand in their face all of the time.”

Leiss pointed to Moscow’s free-throw shooting and missed opportunities as keys to the game.

“They beat us at the foul line and I bet we had four or five missed layups at point-blank range,” he said. “I think this is a good lesson for us. We needed a wake up call going into the playoffs.”

Smith was the only Viking in double figures.

Miller led Moscow’s balanced attack with 13. Junior Paul Wimer and senior Brad Herrenbruck each had 10.

In other IEL action, Jordan Gregg scored 17 points and Bo Gregg added 14 as Lewiston defeated host Lakeland 65-49 in Rathdrum. The Bengals (19-1, 11-1) controlled the glass, outrebounding the Hawks 56-26. Ryan Gallia scored 28 to lead Lakeland (6-13, 1-11).

Intermountain League

Joe Sauer scored 15 points and Kellogg held host St. Maries to nine first-half points en route to a 60-34 victory. Jacob Kagarise added 12 for the Wildcats (14-5, 5-2) who led by 20 at halftime. Tucker Baker led the Lumberjacks (3-15, 0-6) with 14 points. … Mika Smith hit a 4-foot bank shot with 2 seconds left to give Priest River a 48-46 victory over Timberlake in Spirit Lake. Cody Smith led the Spartans (9-7, 3-3) with 20 points, while Mika added 19. Cody Jones hit six 3-pointers and led the Tigers (4-15, 2-5) with 23 points.

North Star League

D.J. Norman had 16 points, eight rebounds and five blocks as Wallace defeated visiting Coeur d’Alene Charter 52-43. Nick Arthun scored seven of his 12 points in the fourth quarter – including 5 of 5 free throws – to seal the win for the Miners (7-12, 4-7). David Baker led the Panthers (8-10, 4-6) with 19 points.