Vikings capture IEL title
The Coeur d’Alene High girls basketball team had a few things to smile about Thursday night.
The Vikings captured their second straight Inland Empire League championship with a 58-42 victory over Post Falls at The Arena.
Coeur d’Alene (14-5 overall, 9-2 IEL) also locked up the No. 1 seed in the 5A Region I tournament, which begins with a loser-out game Tuesday when No. 3 Lewiston (7-12, 2-9) visits No. 2 Lake City (9-9, 6-4).
Post Falls (10-10, 6-6), just a game back of CdA in the IEL standings a week ago, suffered its third straight league loss.
To earn a No. 1 seed in the 4A Region I tourney, the Trojans must hope for two Moscow losses. The Bears (7-10, 6-4) play host to Lake City today and Sandpoint on Saturday to finish out the IEL slate.
The young Vikings led 24-20 at the half, but flexed their muscles in the third quarter, outscoring Post Falls 21-6 and leading by as many as 21.
Freshman guard Kama Griffitts had a game-high 17 points and three steals, and sophomore post Deanna Dotts added 16 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks.
Griffitts acknowledged that the Vikings suffered a few lapses in concentration – committing 18 turnovers and allowing the Trojans to get within 11 with 2 minutes left in the game – but said the league title still tasted just as sweet.
“We came out really strong in the third quarter,” Griffitts said. “We did some unexpected things, and that’s something we’re going to have to work on between now and next week.
“This was a really big win for us, though – we’re IEL champions!”
Vikings coach Dale Poffenroth seemed pleased, for the most part, with his team’s effort, but lamented the periodic lack of intensity and the turnovers, particularly the unforced variety.
“We did have some nice runs and the kids did do a nice job with it and they were able to put it away,” Poffenroth said. “I tried to go to a stall game, and we didn’t run it very well – but if you don’t practice it, you don’t get there, and it hurt our momentum.
“Instead of putting it on overdrive and taking care of it, we put it on slow and backed off, and it’s too late in the year to do that – there’s nothing but good teams ahead.”
Post Falls coach Chris Johnson said his team gets pumped up to play CdA and may have let emotion take control over execution.
“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Coeur d’Alene – they ran their offense very well, they were very patient – made four, five, six passes every possession,” Johnson said. “And we essentially played one-on-one.
“When you face a team that’s playing together and you’re trying to do it single-handedly, you’re not going to win.”
Sophomore guard Heather Arnone had 13 points and teammate Jenny McVeigh added nine points and five rebounds for the Trojans.