Trojans rise from mire
One thing can be said for sure about Thursday night’s 10th annual Battle for the Prairie Pig girls basketball game:
It was an oinker.
Only some solid free-throw shooting down the stretch lifted it out of the muck as the host Post Falls Trojans posted a 31-25 Inland Empire League win over Lakeland at The Arena.
To sophomore Heather Arnone, who was sporting a large, fresh battle scratch on her forehead, though, the smell of victory was all that mattered.
“The game is so exciting that it’s so hard to focus,” said Arnone, who hit four of Post Falls’ 8 for 8 from the line during a 13-0 run in the final 3 minutes, 45 seconds. “We talked about it in the locker room at halftime and said, ‘Let’s pick it up, we need it.’
“It felt so good, because we lost to them two times last year and we almost beat them over there in the first game this year.”
The first half was particularly rough, with Lakeland finally getting into double digits at 12-9 after the game went scoreless through the first 6 minutes of the second quarter. The Trojans (8-7 overall, 5-3 IEL) shot just 20 percent from the field, Lakeland shot just 25 percent and both teams had more turnovers than points at the break.
Post Falls took its first lead of the game early in the second half on Jenny McVeigh’s turnaround 8-footer at the 5:10 mark. But the Hawks (12-5, 4-5) got back on top thanks to seven straight points from Natalie Nichols and extended the lead to 21-15 at the end of three.
By shooting 1 for 5 from the field and the foul line in the fourth, though, Lakeland ruined its chances. The Hawks were forced to foul and the Trojans made no mistakes.
Surrounding the contest was the annual school-spirit competition in which a small, multicolored, wind-up plastic pig is awarded to the fans with the most chutzpah.
The frenetic atmosphere tends to make the game feel somewhat like an exhibition, but Post Falls coach Chris Johnson was fully aware of its postseason implications.
“It’s a league game, and a very important one,” Johnson said. “All the teams in the 4A standings are very, very close – the league’s all knotted up, so this is a crucial game for everybody.”
Johnson said he tried to convey that message to his team, but admitted it may not have sunk all the way in.
“The first half, I think the adrenaline was going so high, and my kids are pretty young, that they got caught up in the emotion of it,” Johnson said. “We didn’t run any offense the whole first half, and we did better in the second half, but we still didn’t do a very good job of running our half-court offense.
“Lakeland played really patient defense – they don’t make you run much, but we did a better job of moving the ball and that opened up a few looks for us.”
Lakeland coach Steve Seymour credited the Trojans’ defense, especially on senior guard Kayla Stiegemeier, who was held to just six points, seven off her 13-plus average, No. 2 in the league.
“We just didn’t play our game,” said Seymour, whose team registered a 48-47 win earlier in the year. “Post Falls played well and the scheme they had to stop Kayla created some problems – they boxed her and have her a little individual attention a lot of the game.
“We’d get good looks at the hoop, but I don’t know how many times we turned it over – I think we had more turnovers than we had points.”