Hawks put clamps on Bears

Lakeland put up a brick wall on defense Thursday against Moscow in the 4A Region I girls basketball tournament.

Moscow, well it just put up bricks.

The No. 1-seeded Hawks (9-11) advanced to the title game with a 46-24 victory over the visiting No. 2 seed, holding the Bears to 2-for-24 shooting in the first half and 19 percent for the game at Rathdrum.

Moscow (4-18) faces visiting No. 3 Sandpoint at 7 p.m. Saturday in a loser-out contest. Lakeland plays the winner Tuesday at Lakeland for the championship and a trip to state.

The contest was over early, though both teams committed 11 first-half turnovers.

Lakeland, playing a tenacious zone-trap defense at both ends of the court, was the team turning defense into offense, taking a 21-5 halftime lead and cruising the rest of the way.

Sophomore guard Camille Reynolds, in addition to knocking down a game-high 16 points for Lakeland, also incurred a bit of a bloody nose in the rough-and-tumble affair.

“It was physical, but it was a really good win, because they have to beat us twice now, and that’s not going to happen,” said the 5-foot-4 Reynolds, sounding a little more nasal than usual and joking that the injury was worth it because the Hawks scored on the play. “(Losing) wasn’t even an option in our minds – we had to win tonight.

“We had team meetings … we had to win, or the next game was loser-out and it was done. Tonight, more than ever, we had to step it up.”

Step it up they did, outrebounding the Bears 35-17, including a game-high eight boards, all in the first half, from senior Natalie Nichols.

“That was a good win – it’s always good to get that first one out of the way,” Seymour said. “The half-court defense is where I was really impressed.”

Seymour also proffered a few terms of endearment for Reynolds.

“She’s kind of a junkyard dog,” Seymour said. “She scraps and battles.”

It wasn’t all sunny, however, for Seymour and his Hawks, who matched Moscow with 22 turnovers in the contest.

“You just never know what to expect,” Seymour said of first games in the postseason. “You’ve got new girls who sat on the bench last year for districts, and want to be a part of it, but until you’re actually out there in a district tournament … I think we’re improving.”

Moscow coach Lisa Carscallen summed up the loss.

“I thought we gave up,” Carscallen said. “Things didn’t go our way that first quarter – I don’t know how many shots we missed … and our crowd thought the refs were bad, so we’re, ‘Oh, gosh, let’s feel sorry for ourselves.’

“It was the worst we played all year, but you’ve got to hand it to Lakeland – they came to play.”