Viks bitten by LC again
It took 12 games – including two big Inland Empire League wins over their crosstown rival – but the Lake City Timberwolves may finally have found an identity under new coach Jim Thacker.
For the offensively challenged Timberwolves to be successful, they must first play defense, limit their turnovers and make the most of their slow-down offense.
Trailing by 11 points at halftime Friday, Lake City upped its passion in the second half to pull out a 54-53 victory over Coeur d’Alene before an estimated crowd of 1,300 at Elmer Jordan Court.
And for the second time against the Vikings, the T-Wolves won on a last-second shot by junior guard Ty Stoddard. His turnaround jumper from inches inside the free-throw line, with two Viks hovering close by, put LC ahead 54-53 with nine seconds remaining.
In the following frenetic seconds, CdA grabbed a loose ball near its bench, and Vik senior guard Matt Palmer’s 10-foot runner off the glass rimmed out at the buzzer.
Stoddard buried a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining in overtime to give LC a 70-67 win over the Viks last month.
“Palmer was trying to give me the right side and I saw Nate (Clinton) coming to help, so I spun back,” Stoddard said of the game-winning shot Friday. “It’s a move I’ve done a million times. I came around and shot it clean.”
The league sweep for LC (5-7 overall, 3-2 league) is key because it gives the T-Wolves the tiebreaker edge for postseason seeding. The teams will play a third time next Friday in the eighth annual Fight for the Fish spirit doubleheader at CdA (5-5, 1-2).
Thacker, who moved within two wins of 500 in his 34-year career, has been waiting for his team to develop a personality. And it appeared he’d have to wait longer after CdA, playing well defensively with good execution offensively, took a 31-20 lead into halftime.
“It’s the same old story the last two or three games. We get down in the first half,” Thacker said. “But we had some kids step up and play hard and get us back into it.”
LC had the ball and a chance to cut into CdA’s 28-20 lead with 43 seconds to go in the second quarter. But a turnover coupled with a 3-pointer by Nate Bligh allowed the Viks to take all the momentum into intermission.
“Fortunately we were able to withstand all that stuff,” Thacker said. “We got them to play kind of our pace. They made their (3-pointers) – they’re going to hit a few of those – but we managed to keep the pace down a little bit. We can’t run and up and down with them.”
CdA was coming off an 80-49 win at Lakeland on Tuesday in which the Viks made 14 3-pointers.
The Viks had an 11-point margin as late as the 3:51 mark of the third quarter when sophomore guard John Latorre hit a bank shot for a 38-27 lead. But LC whittled the margin to 39-34 by period’s end.
A 3-pointer by Cory Kreighbaum pulled LC into its first tie at 43-43 with 5:01 remaining. Moments later, Kreighbaum, who had a team-high 17 points, made two free throws to give the T-Wolves their first lead at 45-43 with 4:30 to go.
There would be three more lead changes before Stoddard’s final basket. Palmer hit a step-out 3-pointer to give the Viks their final lead at 53-52 with :32 to go.
“I hope we can use this as a springboard to win a few games now,” Thacker said. “They know defense has kept us in games the whole year. We’ve just struggled offensively.”
LC, which had committed 10 turnovers in the first half, had just four in the final two periods.
CdA coach Kent Leiss said he’s scouted LC a couple of times and the T-Wolves that have beaten his team twice aren’t the same T-Wolves he’s watched on other occasions.
“When I watch Lake City play, they don’t play that well,” Leiss said. “I’ve watched them play four or five times. It just seemed like in the final 10 minutes of the game they made every free throw or every shot. They did everything they had to do again to win.
“The times I’ve seen them they haven’t played with a whole lot of intensity. But they sure have against us. That’s not an excuse. We know they’re going to play hard; we just have to get better.”
Bligh finished with a game-high 20 points. Teammate Cody Smith, who made 7 of 8 shots from the field, added 14 points and seven rebounds.
Brady Capaul led LC with six rebounds and Brett Bemis had four assists. The T-Wolves made 9 of 10 foul shots in the fourth quarter.
“I just thought they made more plays than we did. It’s that simple,” Leiss said.
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“Caleb Johnson scored 22 points to lead Christian Heritage to a 68-58 victory over host Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy in a non-league game. Christian Heritage took over the game with a 19-4 second-quarter run that allowed them to take a 15-point halftime lead. Josiah Menzies led Charter (6-4) with 24 points.