500th victory a doozy for Thacker

Five hundred wins is a lofty achievement for any basketball coach at any level.

It’s made even more difficult when both your opponent as well as your own team are working against you.

First-year Lake City head boys basketball coach Jim Thacker reached the 500-win Saturday as his T-Wolves survived a 40-39 wild affair against visiting Post Falls in an Inland Empire League contest.

Lake City (7-9 overall, 5-3 IEL) had to survive a frantic comeback from the Trojans (10-6, 4-5) and some woeful fourth-quarter play by his T-Wolves. Leading 40-28 with 1:16 left in the third period, Lake City completely disappeared. The T-Wolves failed to score the rest of the way and Post Falls, inspired by a key play late in the third quarter, came storming back.

When Trojans guard Zach Deines got inside for a short jumper with 1:57 left, the Trojans trailed 40-39.

Neither team scored on their next possessions, but Post Falls got a break with just less than 15 seconds to play when the T-Wolves failed to inbounds the ball within 5 seconds, resulting in a turnover.

Post Falls took a timeout to set up a play, but Spencer Pingel’s shot from the left corner was short. In the scramble for the rebound, the ball went out of bounds and was awarded to the Trojans with 1.8 seconds remaining.

But Post Falls turned the ball over on the inbounds pass and Lake City held on, leaving Thacker to breath a sigh of relief.

“It’s kind of nice to get that out of the way,” he said of number 500. “It feels pretty good really. In the first half of the season, we were struggling a bit, but we’re starting to improve and the kids are buying into things now.”

Despite the loss, Post Falls coach Dave Stockwell saw some good things from his Trojans.

“I was pleased with the way we battled back. I think we were down by 10 at one point,” Stockwell said. “We had to draw something up to get a shot there at the end. It just didn’t work out for us.

“But in the full scheme of things, we learned some lessons tonight that will help us down the road.”

Lake City looked like it was going to put the game away in the third quarter. Leading 27-19 at halftime, the T-Wolves survived a minirun by Post Falls that saw their lead dwindle to 32-28. But Lake City, behind back-to-back 3-pointers by junior guard Ty Stoddard, went up 40-28.

Then a key play seemed to take all the wind out of its sails.

Post Falls junior Brandon Haas made a critical steal of an errant T-Wolf pass and appeared to be on his way for a breakaway dunk.

But Haas was fouled from behind by Lake City’s Jarom Taylor. Haas’ feet went out from under him and he went down hard, appearing to nurse a tender wrist. Taylor was whistled for an intentional foul and Haas returned to hit both free throws.

Both coaches agreed that the momentum switched following that play.

“We actually self-destructed after that foul,” Thacker said. “It completely changed the momentum and complexion of the game and we got tentative at the end. We were lucky to hold on.”

Lake City did not score in the game’s last 9:16.

Despite their less-then-stellar second half, the T-Wolves played well in the first 16 minutes. They finished the first half 11 of 15 from the field (just more than 70 percent) and outrebounded the Trojans 7-2 in the second quarter.

“That was one of the best halves we’ve played this year,” said Brett Bemis, who had all of his eight points in the first half. “We ran our offense and ran what Coach Thacker told us to run. In the second half, we were playing too tentatively. We were actually too patient on offense.”

Taylor led Lake City’s balanced attack with nine points. Brad Bemis and Cory Kreighbaum each chipped in seven.

Pingel, who lit up the T-Wolves with five 3-pointers, led all scorers with 17 points.